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EDUCATION BY 

PLAYS AND GAMES 



BY 



GEORGE ELLSWORTH JOHNSON 

Superintendent of Playgrounds, Recreation Parks, and 
Vacation Schools, Pittsburg, Pa. 



Man plays only where he is a human being in the fullest 
sense of the word, and he has reached full humanity only 
when he plays. This proposition will acquire great and 
deep significance when we shall learn to refer it to the 
doubly serious ideas of duty and destiny. It will then 
su.stain the entire super.structure of aesthetic art and of 
the yet more difficult art of life. — Schiller 



GINN «& COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



^: 



J.- 



AUG 7 30^ 
X ■ / a. 



Entered at Stationers' Hall 



Copyright, 1907, by 
GEORGE ELLSWORTH JOHNSON 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



77.7 



Kht iSltbenacum l^ttii 

GINN & COMPANY . PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A 



.1 u^- 



TO 

PRESIDENT G. STANLEY HALL 

CLARK UNIVERSITY 



PREFACE 

The study of which this book is a revision was begun at 
Clark University and published in the Pedagogical Seminary 
in 1894. Since then the writer has been in very intimate and 
almost constant touch with cMldren, His interest in child 
play, awakened j^ears ago and kept active by observation and 
personal contact with children in clubs, play schools, school 
playgrounds, and the home cu'cle, has been encouraged by 
numberless requests from teachers for the little study pub- 
lished ten years ago. Largely m response to these requests 
this revision has been undertaken. It is earnestly hoped that 
the book may help promote a wider and higher appreciation 
of play and of its value in education, and add somewhat to 
the sum of cliild happiness in the world. 

The discussion of the meaning of play, of the relation of 
play and work, and of the history and application of play to 
education is by no means fidl. It can scarcely do more than 
give the point of view. The discussion of the periods of 
childhood is a bare summary, but is sufficient, it is hoped, to 
make clear their relation to the Course of Plays and Games. 
Of the course itself it may be admitted that it is perhaps too 
condensed. The whole study is valuable, if at all, mainly for 
its suggestiveness. 

The games that are described in the course have been 
selected from a thousand or more. The reader should not 
lose sight of the fact that the variations of children's plays 



viii EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

are well-nigh infinite, yet the essential features are few. The 
games described cover quite fully the whole field many times, 
and are, it is believed, wholly adequate in number. The 
games selected are the older ones, as a rule, and an effort 
has been made to retain the older names. Most new games 
will be found upon examination to be modifications of old 
ones. The descriptions of games are brief, but they are full 
enough to give sufficient directions for playing. The essential 
features of the games have been kept prominent, and they 
are the groundwork upon which the ingenuity of the teacher 
can build to suit her peculiar needs. 

The greatest omissions are in those portions of the course 
that suggest the informal plays for the different periods, as 
the constructive, nature, collecting, imitative, dramatic, and 
musical plays, puzzles, riddles, and the like. These might 
well require several volumes to present them fully, yet it is 
hoped that even here the course will prove very suggestive. 

Attention should be called to the fact that, while some 
minor differences will naturally appear in the plays of boys 
and girls all through the course, practically no differentiation 
is intended in the games of boys and girls before the fourth 
period, and then in the rougher games only. While many of 
the games common to boys are generally not played by girls, 
the reason lies rather in custom than in any real differentia- 
tion of the sexes up to the close of this period, at about 
twelve years. Girls will instinctively avoid some games, but 
the attitude of the parent and teacher should be to extend the 
field of plays and games for girls throughout all the periods. 

A word remains to be said in regard to the aim of the 
Course of Plays and Games. No one will make the error of 
supposing that the course is intended as a substitute for 



PREFACE ix 

courses of study, nor will any one be likely to suppose that 
the course should be strictly followed. It is designed to help 
the parent and teacher to utilize play in the nurture and 
training of children, by suggesting types of activity espe- 
cially adapted to the needs of the child at the different 
periods, and to the kinds of knowledge being acquired at 
the time. Games and plays should rarely be dictated ; they 
should often be suggested, sometimes taught, by the parent 
and teacher (for children welcome a leader in their games), 
but it is on the environment largely that we should place the 
stress of our efforts. 

It is true that some of the plays and games suggested 
will, after all, be only " devices " when correlated with school 
work, yet the activities suggested belong for the most part 
to the spontaneous plays of children, and may be taken 
advantage of without destroying the essential elements of 
genuine play. When we know more about evolution, when 
we know more about children, and particularly individual 
children, we may so arrange courses of study that earnest, 
interested zeal will abide with the child through all the 
years of liis learning. Not that hard work will be elimi- 
nated. Play involves the hardest of work, a greater output 
of energy than drudgery, just as service does more work 
than slavery ; but the drudgery will he swallowed up in the 
interest, in the earnestness of the zealous soul, for drudgery 
is in the mind and heart much more than in the amount 
and kind of work to be done. 

It would be hardly possible here to make fuU acknowledg- 
ment of the indebtedness I sincerely feel to the many who 
have in some way aided in the preparation of this book, to 
teachers, vacation-school assistants, parents, photographers, 



X EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

and others. I owe much to writers on child study, and espe- 
cially to writers upon play, — to Guts Muths, who antici- 
pated much that I have tried to do ; to Froebel, the creator 
of the widespread interest in cliild play ; to Groos, who has 
given us a new point of view ; to Guhck, who has noted 
the significance of play at each successive period of child- 
hood ; to Lee, who has given a clear vision of the need of 
play in the social betterment of city children ; to Hall, who 
with comprehensive insight sees the relation and significance 
of all ; and to not a few others also. To President Hall I am 
under great obligation, and to Dr. William H. Burnham, who, 
not only in the initial study but also during all the years 
since, has been a source of unfailmg help and inspiration. To 
Dr. C. F. Hodge and to Dr. Louis N. Wilson I owe nuich in 
the way of material aid and suggestion. To all these I express 
gratitude, knowing that without their interest and help the 
book could not have been written. 



CONTENTS 



Page 
Introduction by G. Stanley Hall xiii 

PART I 
The Theory, History, and Place of Play in 

PjDUCATION 

Chapter 

I. The Meaning of Play 3 

II. Play in Education 26 

III. The Period.'^ of Childhood and their Relation to a Course 

OF Plays and Games (ip^ 

PART II 
A Suggestive Course of Plays and Games 

Period One (Ages 0-3) 83 

Period Two (Ages 4-6) 86 

Period Three (Ages 7-9) 94 

Period Four (Ages 10-12) 155 

Period Five (Ages 13-15) 205 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 223 

INDEX 229 



INTRODUCTION 

We have here at last a curriculum of plays and games, 
graded by age from infancy to middle teens, and also ana- 
lyzed so as to show the chief mental and physical activities 
involved in and developed by each of them. Not only age 
and sex but season as well is taken into account. It is 
essentially a new book with a field of its own. Within the 
past decade the literature on plays and games has grown to 
formidable proportions. Anthropologists have collected and 
described hundreds of them as found in China, Japan, and 
India, in Europe and America, in towns and cities, and among 
savage races. The history of mauy of them has been traced 
back to dim antiquity, and some have been shown to be sur- 
vivals of forms of ancient rites, initiation ceremonies, types 
of industry long superseded, etc. From Herbert Spencer to 
Groos the theory of play — its origm, meaning, and edu- 
cational value — has been a theme of steadily increasing 
interest, and there are various theories by no means as yet 
harmonized. It was reserved, however, for Superintendent 
Johnson to make the results of these studies practical for 
teachers and parents. Some ten years ago he spent a year 
in gathering nearly a thousand of the most important and 
widely diffused plays and games, of which he then eliminated 
more than half to fiud those that were most representative 
and important. These he carefully analyzed in order to show 
what muscular activities, limbs, parts of the body, what 



xiv EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

psychic qualities (svich as reason, memory, attention, skill, 
accuracy, honor, emulation), and what kind and degree of 
knowledge of mathematics, language, geography, history, 
etc., each developed ; graded and marked them, as it were, 
upon these scales, and thus determined at what age and 
stage of development each was capable of its maximal edu- 
cational value. Since tliis work began he has shown great 
tact and originality as a school superintendent, in using 
portions of this choice repertory of plays and games to sup- 
plement and also to stimulate school studies by organizing 
playgrounds, clubs, rooms, hours, courses ; and here we have 
the results of both his study and experience combined 
and practically correlated with the studies and grades of 
school work. 

It goes without saying that such a manual should be read 
by all intelligent teachers and parents, and that to open- 
minded educational leaders it suggests important modifica- 
tions of school work, which when made will tend to greater 
economy of mental effort, and, by turning on the great motive 
power of the play instinct, give increased efficiency to instruc- 
tion and to learning, and will make headway against fatigue, 
perhaps the greatest of all obstacles in the child's pathway. 

G. STANLEY HALL 

Clark Universitv 
Worcester, Massachusetts 



EDUCATION^ BY PLAYS 
AND GAMES 




Part I 

THE THEORY, HISTORY, AND PLACE 
OF PLAY IN EDUCATION 



CHAPTEE I 
THE MEANING OF PLAY 

The evolutionary point of view. Patter, the great geog- 
rapher, somewhere hkens the earth to a seed. When the 
world was launched into space, a mighty, flaming atom of 
the universe, it contained within it the germ of all life now 
upon it. Of the physical life upon the earth we know this 
is literally true. Verily out of the dust of the earth was 
man created. 

The idea of the gradual unfolding of life upon and out of 
the earth in an ever-ascending scale is one of infinite sug- 
gestion and inspiration. Tliis idea is plainly suggested in 
the Bible, where the account of the creation describes the 

3 



EDITCATIOX BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



evolution of the life upon the earth, — first the waste and 
the void, then the earth co^'ered with water, then the dry 
land appearing, then the beginning of plant life, then animal 
life in the waters, then the monsters of the deep and birds 
and creeping things of the land, then the beasts of the field, 

and finally man. Tliis is 
an outline in general of 
the claims of scientists 
regarding the develop- 
ment of life upon the 
earth. It is the story 
of evolution, the story 
written everywhere in the 
rocks, the soil, and the life 
of the earth, the story of 
man created out of the 
dust of the earth, yet 
fashioned into the image 
of God, the divine breath 
of life m his nostrils, be- 
coming a living soul. 

Now biologists tell us 
that every new human 
life recapitulates in a gen- 
eral way the whole scale, 
from the lowest forms up to the human cliild born into the 
world ; that each individual life begins in a unit cell which 
divides, then multiplies, the organism advancing in an ever- 
ascending scale to man. 

Instinct and education. Up to a certain point nature pro- 
vides for the full development of the offspring independently 




Imitation 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



of any care or training on the part of the parent. Many 
msects spring into existence' fully equipped for the struggle 
for life. Their education, if we might so speak of education, 
is hereditary and is transmitted in the form of instincts. 

A little higher in the scale of animal life development is 
not complete at birth, and there is a period during wMcli 
not only boddy growth but 
also organic and structural 
development continue while 
the offspring is protected 
and fed, if not trained, by 
the parent, as in the case of 
birds. Here also education 
is largely a matter of in- 
heritance, and such habits 
and knowledge as are ac- 
quired follow largely the 
dictates of certain instincts. 

Advancing a little higher 
in the scale of animal life, 
we find still greater help- 
lessness at birth and a still 
longer period of bodily and 
structural change before 
maturity and ability to cope 
with the world alone are reached. During this period of 
immaturity the young instinctively exercise in playful ways 
the growmg powers by the use of which their ancestors have 
survived in the struggle for life, as in the case of the fox or 
the cat. Here education is largely the result of instinctive 
reaction to environment and of plajful practice of the powers 




Experimenting 



6 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AXD GAMES 

by which the animal is to maintain life in its maturity. 
One readily observes this in the play of kittens. 

Advancing to the human infant, we find even greater 
helplessness at birth and a still longer period of immaturity. 
Here, as in the case of the lower animals, we find instincts 
prompting to activities alhed to those by means of which 
our ancestors survived. This activity is known as play, and, 
up to a certain point in the development of civilization, has 
been the chief factor in conserving and training the powers 
necessary in maturity. 

Not until this century, says Chamberlain, did the mean- 
ing of the helplessness of the human infant become apparent ; 
it has taken long to appreciate , the full significance of the 
prolongation of human infancy. It takes the cat one year to 
reach maturity, only one twelfth of its lifetime ; it takes the 
dog two years, one tenth of its lifetime ; it takes the horse 
four years and a half, one seventh of its lifetime; it takes 
man twenty-five or thirty years, fully one third of his life- 
time. Just as the longer gestation period was necessary for 
man to pass through the stages of development, because of its 
wider range, than was the case with the lower animals, so the 
longer period of development after birth was necessary for 
the completion of postnatal evolution and of education for life; 

Biology and self-education. Up to a certain point, then, 
the young have within themselves the impulse for self- 
education, but tliis education is fundamental and not acces- 
sory, — it tends to aid perfect biological development during 
postnatal evolution rather than to prepare for higher social 
relations. Hence arose the recognition of a need of conscious 
instruction of the young. Now from the time that man first 
began consciously to instruct liis offspring there have been 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



these two factors in the development of the individual child, — 
heredity and conscious education. Nature always strives to 
conserve the needed powers of the child and bring to full- 
ness every promise of strength ; but nature's gifts have been 
greatly improved and the advance of the race greatly aided 
by the addition of conscious training. Nature, or heredity, 
and conscious education 
join hands in bringing man 
to his best and fullest de- 
velopment. Development 
depends first upon nature, 
or heredity, but it reaches 
its l)est and fullest possi- 
bility comcident with and 
partly because of conscious 
education. Child culture 
then has two offices : first, 
to conserve the biological 
succession under the best 
physiological conditions, 
thereby conserving desir- 
able hereditary traits and 
powers and effecting the 
best possible organic development ; second, to devote those 
powers to the acquiring of such knowledge and such habits 
as will best further the man's social usefulness and indi- 
vidual happiness. Emphasis has invariably been laid upon 
the second, in our conscious education of the child, with im- 
punity under certain conditions of environment, disastrously 
under others, as in the crowded districts of our larger towns 
and cities. 




Imitation — Reading to Bab\' 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 



8 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Civilization frequently tends to thwart nature's efforts to 
do her part in the full development of the cliild, and often we, 
in our efforts at conscious training, have aggravated the diffi- 
culties civilization had already placed in nature's way, and 
unwittingly defeated the very end we had in view. We have 
lost sight of the biological side of education in our earnest- 
ness for the sociological. In 
planning our school systems 
we have snubbed nature. My 
plea for a wider recognition of 
play in education is this, that 
the more successfully the child 
passes through the biological 
stages of development, the more 
complete will he be as a man. 
Play is our best great ally in 
bringing up our children. Play 
bears the same relation to the 
biological development of the 
child that education bears to 
hereditary gifts, and it would 
be as absurd to despise a child's 
natural and inherited gifts and 
attribute all to education as to 
ignore the relation of play activities to child development. 

An explanation of play. We must seek for the explana- 
tion of play in the study of evolution. The general principles 
of evolution are now universally accepted, and each year 
finds some new emphasis laid upon the value of the doc- 
trine of evolution in determining educational principles, each 
emphasizing the value of play in education. Just what play 




Imitation — Cookixg 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 9 

is we shall know when we know just what evolution is. We 
make the study of evolution the basis for the study of the 
child, and again we make child study the basis for a study 
of evolution. Play is interpreted in the light of the known 
facts of evolution, both the evolution of man and that of 




Keeping House 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 



institutions, and again the study of the evolution of man and 
his institutions are made a basis for the interpretation of 
play. Even the student of children and child play is amazed 
at the amount that has been written during the last few years 
upon the subject of play l)y writers in anthropology, biology, 
folklore, education, child study, evolution, and social reform. 



10 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

This tends to show how evohition, child study, and play are 
inextricably interwoven in the minds of students of educa- 
tion of to-day, and this alone would justify the attempt to 
make more familiar a subject still so unfamiliar to people 
generally and yet so vitally associated with educational work. 

Without attempting at this point to review the history of 
play in education or the theories that have been advanced in 
explanation of this phenomenon of childhood, although such 
would lend dignity and authority to the discussion in hand, 
let us outline l)riefly the main estabhshed points of evolution 
directly and practical )ly applicable to education and generally 
recognized by students of education. 

It is generally accepted that the child, in his development, 
epitomizes the development of the race ; that there are more 
or less clearly defined epochs, or stages of growth, in the 
physical, mental, and moral development of the child ; that 
development progresses from that which is oldest in the 
development of the race to that which is newest, from the 
control of the trunk, for example, to the control of the arms 
and legs, and thence to the control of the finer coordinated 
movements of hands and fingers ; from the fundamental 
mental operations, as of perception and memory, to associa- 
tion and reasoning ; from cleanlmess of person, observance 
of truth, and obedience, to altruistic motives and devotion. 

It has lieen found that when young children are compared 
with adults there is a greater difference in the control of fine 
or precise movements than in the control of the trunk and 
larger movements of limbs. At the age of five or six a child 
is able to walk with ease and grace, but his precision of 
movement of hands and fingers, for example, is only about 
three fifths of that of a boy of sixteen. TMs difference in 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 11 

control of fundamental and accessory movements is strik- 
ingly illustrated in feeble-minded children, the control of the 
finer movements corresponding to a higher degree of intelli- 
gence being very deficient. Comparisons made between the 
lower animals and man show the same increase of disparity 
in the power of man over that of the lower animals as we 
pass from the fundamental to the accessory. The muscular 
arrangements of the monkey's hand and that of man, for 




Expressmen 

example, are very similar and offer no adequate hint of the 
disparity in the movements of which they are capable. 

Smce muscular movement is the expression of nervous 
activity, we should expect that a study of the development 
of the nervous system would show a corresponding order of 
development. Dr. Hughlings-Jackson, the Enghsh patholo- 
gist, made application of the evolutionary theory in the treat- 
ment of mental diseases, conceiving three levels or centers 
to the nervous system, the lowest level controlling the reflex 
and involuntary movements, the middle level the higher 



12 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

more complex movements, and the highest level being the 
cent^ of universal and complete coordinations. The three- 
level theory is now the accepted basis of diagnosis in the 
treatment of epilepsy. 

Dr. Frederick Burk, in his very able study of the develop- 
ment of the nervous system, draws with apparent justness 
the following conclusions. 

The order of development of the independent parts of the phj's- 
ical and nervous system is, as a general principle (subject doubtless 
to minor exceptions), from that which is oldest in the racial history 
towards that which is most recent. 

In an extremely loose sense, — clearly recognizing the principle 
that the organism develops by parts, each of which has a different 
time of beginning its development, a different rate of ripening, and a 
different period of reaching maturity, — nevertheless, we may regard 
the period of infancy as one of predominating nascencies of the 
oldest fundamental activities largely in control of the lowest level of 
the nervous system ; the period of childhood, from two years to 
puberty, as the period of predominating nascencies of special senses 
and their associations one with the other ; the period of adolescence 
as the period of the predominating nascencies of the higher form of 
associations, i.e. those which have been develojjed in the history of 
the human race. 

Others have further gathered up the material of child 
study and set forth clearly and detiuitely the main periods 
of childhood, noting their' significance and vahie in relation 
to education, and many others still have contributed in some 
particular to the knowledge of the physical characteristics, 
growth, play, imagination, imitation, emotions, drawings, 
ideals, purposes, fears, ambitions, and interests in many lines, 
of children, all of which have their bearing upon the discus- 
sion of the problem. 



THE MEANING OF P 



13 



Play and instinct. The relation of play to instinct is 
fundamental and takes a large place in the discussions of 
play, and while I do not mean to stop to present at any 
length the relation of instinct to play, it is important to 
notice one or two points of great interest in this connection. 
With the unfolding development of the child, accompanying 
the "nascencies," arise the characteristic native tendencies 
and interests. 

The experiences of the 
nervous and muscular sys- 
tems of man in the long 
period of action and reac- 
tion of evolutionary devel- 
opment have made natural, 
if not irresistible, certain 
modes of conduct under 
certain conditions. These 
impulses to definite reac- 
tion to given stimuli reecho 
the historic activities of the 
race, and may be called in- 
stinctive. Some are intimately associated with organic func- 
tions which constitute our physical life, others with the 
activities which have made for the preservation and enrich- 
ment of life. It is the manifestation of these impulses which 
gives rise to the phenomenon of play in children. Play might 
then be defined as the expression of awakening instincts. To 
understand its full significance in child development it is 
necessary first to understand the significance of instinct. 

James, in his chapter on Instinct, has incidentally thrown 
light upon the office of play in education. Many instincts, 



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Imitation' — Serving Tea 
Photograph hy B. W. Gupi^y 



14 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

he says, are transient. If, during the period of activity of any 
instinct, the environment is favorable for its manifestation, 
a habit is formed wliich survives after the instinct has faded 
away ; but if the environment is unfavorable for the mani- 
festation of that instinct, the instinct will soon fade and no 
habit will be formed, however favorable the environment 
may afterwards be. A chicken which has not heard the call 
of its mother during the first eight or ten days of life will 
never give heed to the call. Young ducks kept from the 
water for a certain period lose their instinct for swimming. 
Young squirrels confined in cages, failmg to find soil in which 
to bury their uneaten nuts, soon cease all efforts to bury them. 

Leaving the lower animals aside and turning to human instincts, 
we see the law of transiency corroborated on the widest scale by the 
alteration of different interests and passions as human life goes 
on. ... In all pedagogy the great thing is to strike while the iron 
is hot, and to seize the wave of the pupil's interest in each successive 
subject before its ebb has come, so that knowledge may be got and 
a habit of skill acquired, — a headway of interest, in short, secured, 
on which afterwards the individual nuiy float. There is a happy 
time for fixing skill in drawing, for making boys collectors in natural 
history and presently dissectors and botanists ; then for initiating 
them into the harmonies of mechanics and of the wonders of physical 
and chemical law.i 

" The natural conclusion to draw from this transiency of 
mstincts," says James, " is that most instincts are implanted 
for the sake of giving rise to habits, and that, this purpose once 
accomplished, the instincts themselves, as such, have no raison 
cVetre, in the physical economy and consequently fade away." 
S) The play impulses of children then, we may affirm, have 
one all-important office of givmg rise to habits and permanent 
1 James, Psychology, Vol. II, p. 400. 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 15 

interests. There is a time when boys love and must learn to 
play ball, swim, and skate, for example, or be deficient in such 
sports and the particular training they give all their lives ; 
so there is a time when the habit of activity, that is, the 
liahit of ivork and of enjoyment of work may be formed, and 
its opportunity lies in forming the right connection between 





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The Stoke 
Photograph by John Boyd 

play and work at the right time. The opportunity of play is 
the opportunity of work. 

Again, the trend of all these studies is to show that there 
is a j)ractically definite growth and development of the child, 
physically, mentally, socially, morally, along lines more or 
less parallel with the development of the race, and that one 
familiar with these facts of child development can gauge with 
considerable assurance of accuracy the mterests, aptitudes, 



16 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

and needs of children of a given age. In other words, there 
is a law of child development which has to a degree been 
determined. Now since children unfold or develop in a gen- 
eral way according to a definite and universal law, we find 




Eskimos 
Photograph by Dr. O. F. Hodge 

occurring all along the line certain characteristic reactions 
to stimuli and environment, and these characteristic reactions 
— pleasurable reactions, which may be with general accuracy 
foretold — are the plays of children. Some make them reecho 
the historic activities of the race, harking back through the 
countless generations of human evolution ; others make them 
look forward, preparing the child for future serious activities 
of life. Of some of these theories of play brief mention will 
be made later. Let it suffice here to say that whatever view 
we adopt, so far as the practical teacher and parent are con- 
cerned, all views tend to emphasize the importance of play 
and continually to enlarge its field. We may rest assured of 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



17 



its vital relation to the evolutionary process, and, as Chamber- 
lain has well put it, " play is concerned with everything ; 
emotions, feelings, acts, thoughts, imaginings, speech, — all 
begin their career in its subtle shaping influence." And in 
this discussion of play which is to follow along a very practical 
line, I hope, let us think of play as the child's conforming 
to the law of his nature. All along the line the child's 
pleasurable response to his environment is his play. 

Play and work. What has been said seems to indicate 
that play is very inclusive of the activities of child life and 
rather outside the ordinary limitation which makes play 
barren of any object or end outside the activity itself, a view 




A TuoLLEY Ride 
Photograph by John Boyd 



with which I cannot agree. Play may acliieve an end which 
is not only in the mind of the parent or teacher but in that of 
the child as well ; and this fact has a most significant bear- 
ing upon the transition from play to work in education. I 



18 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

hope to show that work and play (that is, play in the generic 
sense, however it may be in the popular use of the term) 
often shade off so imperceptibly in the case of the cliild that 
they cannot be distinguished. It is a mark of genius to love 
one's work, to enjoy it in the doing, but it might be a matter 
uf common occurrence. All play involves work, and children 
sometimes love to work, even to work for a definite result, 
as they love to play. This is a matter of observation time 
and again. I hold that it is one of the chief ends of educa- 
tion to develop a habit of joyousness in work. The fear thatf/ 
love of play will interfere with love of work is the most 
groundless of fears. The more a child loves play the more 
likely will he be to love work. The sneers that are made at 
the " sugar coating " of school work are made by those who 
do not understand what play is, or else are made at the 
efforts of those teachers who have violated play in ignorant 
attempts to utilize it. I have no plea for sugar-coated tasks, if 
Lhey really l)e sugar coated, but to sweeten work with a real 
joy m the doing is the high art of the genius in teaching.^ 

1 I have known boys frequently to ask permission to take their play- 
time to work in their gardens, to clean w^ barns, to sweep walks, take 
care of chickens, run errands, mow the lawn, hoe strawberry plants, and 
what not. A boy of fourteen or fifteen used his playtime every evening, 
at his own request, to hoe strawberiy plants, until he had hoed the whole 
of a veiy large bed with rows aggregating a mile and a quarter in length. 
We may mention also such plays of boys as fishing, hunting, setting 
traps and snares, nutting, building huts, rafts, catamarans, pigeon houses, 
training for match games of football, and a thousand other occupations 
which involve much labor — even drudgery — and definite objects to be 
accomplished. In a school for truants all kinds of household and out- 
door work were included in the liked occupations of boys. " In all my 
experience of fourteen years in a truant school," says Mr. F. L. Johnson, 
" I have never known a really lazy boy. Every healthy boy likes some 
form of work that we have here." 



THE MEANING OF PLAY • 19 

I would not for an instant give the impression that I 
minimize the sense of duty in work. But is not love of duty 
a higher tiling than even sense of duty ? Eather I desire to 
exalt work, — the serious endeavor of children, — to increase 
the amount done, not lessen it. Heartless labor, the " fooling " 
of children, result from faulty coordination. The activity 
demanded by the developmg body and bram has, in such 
cases, not been provided. The child soul knows its own, and 
when the child finds it nothing could be more earnest, more 
serious, than his efforts in appropriating it. The contrast 
should not be between work and play but rather between 
play and " fooling " on the one hand, and between play and 
distasteful labor on the other. 

In The World's Worh for July, 1904, President Eliot writes 
upon " Content in Work." He says : 

Y The winning- of satisfaction and content in daily work is the most 
fundamental of all objects for an industrial democracy. Unless this 
satisfaction and content can be habitually won on an immense scale, 
the hopes and ideals of democracy cannot be realized. Therefore 
joy in work should be the all-pervading subject of the industrial 
discussion ; for it is at once motive, guide, and goal7/It is only in 
the less skillful employments of mankind, which ai^e also the com- 
monest, that any question arises concerning the possibility of satis- 
faction and content in daily work. rAW the nobler employments give 
much pleasiu'e. Every professional man, every business man, and, 
indeed, every person in whose occupation there is free competitive 
play for intelligence and judgment, takes pleasvire, or joy, or satis- 
faction in his daily work ; and his interest in his work does not 
depend principally on the amount of pay he receives for it. He gets 
from it a large satisfaction independent of, and in addition to, its 
pecuniary returns. The real question, then, is whether the satisfac- 
tions of the higher employments can be measurably obtained in the 
lower. On the right solution of this problem depends the whole 



20 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

future of the industrial democracy, for there can be no public happi- 
ness without content and satisfaction from the daily work of the 
masses of mankind. 

President Eliot then enumerates the sources of joyousness 
in work : first, the pleasure of exertion, tlie active exercise 
of one's powers, bodily and mental ; second, achievement, 
particularly competitive achievement ; third, cooperation, es- 
pecially when involving rhythm and harmony ; fourth, the 
exercise of intelligence, judgment, or skill ; fifth, encounter- 
ing risks, danger, makmg adventures. Are these not familiar 
terms of writers upon play ? Are they not identical with the 
chief sources of pleasure in play ? And President Eliot, in 
the article, mentions the identity. 

A bare mention of some of the theories of play will make 
still clearer the relation of play to work. The theory advanced 
by Spencer and Schiller, that play was due to surplus energy, 
has recently been restated by Colozza, who makes play depend 
upon the "superfluity of energy over and above the essential 
needs of life," coupled with a high degree of psychic activity. 
Nearly all writers recognize this element of well-being as 
advantageous to play, although it is claimed that play some- 
times continues when surplus energy is no longer present. 
President Eliot recognizes this element in the joyousness of. 
work. " If labor is pressed beyond the limits of strength and 
health, content in it is impossible. Any overwork destroys 
the physical basis of satisfaction in toil." Hence the whole 
question of school hygiene and fatigue bears directly upon 
the successful blending of play and work in education. 

Again, the mental attitude is important in play and in 
the enjoyment of work. A disagreeable task has often been 
transformed into play by the mere shifting of the mental 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



21 



attitude.^ I do not believe it right or wise to call work play, 
when there is no real connection between the two. To call 
distasteful work play does not make it play, surely ; but, on 
the other hand, there is often equal harm in premature dis- 
tinctions made by parents and teachers, which bias the child 
harmfully, giving him the impression that play is pleasurable 
and work is not, or that work is worth while and play is not. 







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Playing Japanese 



We do violence to the child thus to press upon him premature 
and ill-judged distinctions between play and work, and such 
have been a by no means unimportant source of the joyless- 
ness of daily duties the world over. " Happiness is a state of 

1 A gentleman relates that when he was a boy his fathei- succeeded in 
getting all the stones in a field picked up and piled in one spot by placing 
a large stone in the center and suggesting it as a mark for his boys to 
pitch stones at. All will recall how it was that Tom Sawyer got his 
fence whitewashed. 



22 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 




Work or Vlw 



mind much more than a state of body." " The causes of the 
prevaihng discontent," says President Ehot, " are not in the 
circumstances of the people, hut in the minds and hearts 
of the people themselves." Education in liarmony with child 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



23 



development makes habitual a happy attitude of mind in 
both play and work, when they do come to be distinguished, 
and tends to bring into the lives and work of those who 
spend their days in labor much of the motive and method 
of the artist. 

Alexander's love of achievement, which impelled him to 
the conquest of the world, is not so unhke the love of achieve- 
ment of the man who invents a machine, writes a book, 
composes music, creates a new species of fruit, discovers the 
cause and cure of a disease, or finds a new and better wav of 




Work or Play? — A Dinner from their Own Gardens 
Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 

doing an}i;hing. Alexander cried because there w^ere no more 
worlds to conquer, no further chance to achieve. Had he lived 
in tills generation, he might have learned that the worlds yet 
to conquer are uncountable and that each new world con- 
quered reveals still others hitherto unobserved. It is this 



24 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

lesson that our youth sliould learn. Is it not the office of 
education to open up to each child an ever-widening field 
for achievement, an ever-increasing joy and satisfaction in 
accomplishing ? This joy of acliievement in the line of some 
permanent and useful interest related to life and adapted to 
its needs, is what the love of play may and should eventually 
develop into. Poverty, hardship, difficulty, even what in the 
absence of the right spirit and temper would be drudgery, 
may only add zest to the joy of successful achievement. 

Our school work should be so selected, so graded, and so 
presented that the child may not be deprived of the joy of 
achievement, of a sense of pride and satisfaction in liis ability 
to do. Subjects may be so presented as to be continually 
a year or two in advance of the cliild, often bringing a sense 
of weakness and humiliation instead of one of strength and 
pride. This not infrequently happens in the case of such 
subjects as arithmetic, technical grammar, and composition. 

We need a new term to express the idea of play as related 
to education. Play always involves work ; it is the cjiild's 
work. As we have said, the utmost seriousness attaches to 
it ; nothing covdd be more earnest, could be farther removed 
from " fooling." There is no adequate reason why, with tlie 
passing of childhood and youth, joy in activity should cease, 
nor why joy should not attend activity which has definite and 
useful results. Neither can I believe that it is the demand 
for activity, or the capacity of feeling joy in activity, even 
for its own sake, that is lost when man's estate is reached. 
The normal man must work, as truly as the normal child 
must play. And many men, if not indeed the majority of 
successful men, find their work §,8 absorbing and interest- 
ing as were ever their games and their sports. The habit of 



THE MEANING OF PLAY 



25 



activity, if acquired in prematurity, persists through manhood 
and womanhood. What was at first instinctive has become 
habitual. I am not sure that the best distinction that can be 
made lietween play and work is not this : one is the result 
of the force of instinct, the other of the force of habit ; if joy 
has gone from work, it departed with the loss of the sense of 
freedom. Given health, freedom (opportunity for initiative), 
and absence of fatigue, why is not the work of man perfectly 
analogous to the play of the child ? 




Toy Making at the Andover Play School 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 



CHAPTER II 
PLAY IN EDUCATION 

Play among the ancients. Primitive man undoubtedly 
recognized, in a way, the educational value of play. To many 
of the ancients games were of great importance. The Egyp- 
tians' idea was that heaven was a place for music, dancing, and 
games. According to Falkener many games are of religiovis 
origin and date back to rites of divination. Plato expressed 
the thought that man is God's plaything, and hence men and 
women should pass life in the noblest of pastimes. It is not 
surprismg, therefore, to find that use was made of play in the 
education of children. 

The Greeks were the first great exponents of play in educa- 
tion. Plato urged state legislation in regard to the games of 
cliildren and condescended to give good practical advice to 
mothers on nursery play that would be ideal for a modern 
mothers' meeting. The Greek educational games are classified 
by Sonnenschein as follows : 

1. The games of the nursery. 

2. The gymnastic exercises of the school. 

3. The agonistic exercises a^d social games of mature life. 
In the women's chamber, for both boys and girls, were the 

rattle, ball, hoop (trundled by a crooked-necked iron), swing, 
and top. The boys also had stilts and toy carts, and the 
girls, dolls. Children sometimes made their own toys. Aris- 
tophanes speaks of a child who made ships and even frogs 

26 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



27 



of pomegranate peel. Plato discountenanced too many toys 
for the nursery, as discouraging originality, advocated mimic 
tools for carpentering, and encouraged free play, those "natural 
modes of amusement which children find out for themselves 
when they meet." 

The outdoor games of the little Greeks seem very familiar. 
They played Odd or Even, Slap in the Dark (to gviess who 




The Call of Nati rk 
Photograph by John Boyd 



gave a box on the ear), Hunt the Slipper, Catch Ball, Hide and 
Seek, Heads or Tails (JxrrpaKLvha, played with oyster shells), 
'X^urpivSa (child in the middle, others pinch or slap until one 



28 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

is caught), Tortoise, a similar game, Brazen Fly, like Blind 
Man's Buff' (the eyes of the child in the middle are bandaged ; 
the child says " I will hunt a brazen fly " ; the rest answer, 
" You will hunt but you will not catch," and strike the catcher 
with thongs of leather until some one is caught), Kiss in the 
Ring, Tag, Ride a Cockhorse, and others. 

At seven years of age the Greek boy was sent to the pales- 
tra. As he started at break of day for school, accompanied 
by his pedagogue, he anticipated a mornmg of spirited play. 
He raced, leaped, and wrestled with the boys of his class, and 
then danced and sang until the liigh sun called him to rest 
and to lunch. The exercises consisted of (1) runnmg, (2) leap- 
ing, (3) discus throwing, (4) javelin casting, (5) wrestling, — 
the first two mainly for the legs, the second two for the arms 
and the eye, and the last for the whole body and temper. 

From sixteen to eigliteen years of age the Greek youth 
was admitted to the gymnasia and engaged in the pentath- 
lon, namely, running, leaping, discus throwing, wrestlmg, 
and boxing. 

The results of this part of Greek education are famOiar to 
all. The physical perfection of the Greeks, their wonderful 
temper, stand out as facts at which we have not yet ceased 
to feel astonishment. As to the sesth^tic value of the public 
games. Professor Hoppin of Yale says that the public games 
really gave a raison d'etre to sculpture, and that with the 
abandonment of the games Greek sculpture declined. 

Play in modern education. From the Greeks down to 
Froebel's time no definite system of eduf^tion by play was 
followed. Many writers and teachers recognized its value in 
education and not a few made practical use of it. Rabelais 
is as zealous in directing the play of Gargantua as in choosing 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



29 



liis studies. Tennis and ball, riding, wrestling, swimming, 
every species of physical recreation — " there is nothmg 
which Gargantua does not do to give agility to his liml)s and 




Feeding the Birds 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 

to strengthen his njuscles." Eabelais, in marked contrast to 
the laborious methods of his time, proposed to teach by play 
and have his pupil " learn even mathematics through recrea- 
tion and amusement." 



30 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Erasmus suggested that the teacher should palHate the 
tedium of drill in reading and writing by an attractive 
method. " The ancients modeled toothsome dainties into the 
form of letters, and thus, as it were, made the children 
swallow the alphabet." 

Comenius again brought the play interest of the cliild 
to notice by his use of objects, pictures, and puzzles. 




Nature Interest — Chasing a Squirrel 

The Jesuits made a conspicuous endeavor to utilize the 
game spirit in education by means of their cemulus, a device 
which they carried to an extreme. Each boy in school was 
pitted against some other boy in a kind of intellectual wres- 
tling match ; there was not a boy who was not watchmg to trip 
his rival. Frequently sides were chosen representing hostile 
camps, called Eome and Carthage, which engaged in pitched 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 31 

battles ou some field of Latin grammar or Greek composition, 
thereby increasing greatly the zest of the pupils. 

Fenelon was an extremist in the matter of making studies 
agreeable to children. In study and moral discipline " pleas- 
ure must do all." "Conceal their studies under the appear- 
•ance of liberty and pleasure." " Mingle mstruction with play." 
" I have seen certain children who have learned to read while 
playing." 

Locke laid great stress upon the art of making all that 
cliildren have to do "sport and play." He mentions a game 
devised by an acquaintance " of great quality," who pasted 
the vowels and consonants upon dice, making a play for liis 
cliildren, he winning who threw most words at one cast of 
the dice, " whereby his eldest son, yet in coats, has played 
liimself into spelHng with great eagerness." Locke especially 
commended wrestling as an exercise for physical training. 

A conspicuous attempt to use play in education was that 
of Basedow. Quick gives an illustration in his quotation from 
Fred's Journey to Dessau. 

They play at soldiers, and Ilerr Wolke is officer. He gives the 
word in Latin and they must do whatever he says. For instance, 
when he says, Claudite oculos, they all shut their eyes; when he says, 
Circumspicite, they look about them; Imitamini sutorem, they draw 
the wax thread like the cobblers. Herr Wolke gives a thousand 
commands in the drollest fashion. Another game is the " hiding 
game." Some one writes a name and hides it from the children — 
the name of some part of the body, or of a plant, or animal, or 
metal — and the children guess what it is. Whoever guesses right 
gets an apple or piece of cake. One of the visitors wrote intestina 
and told the children it was a part of the body. Then the guessing 
began. One guessed caput, another nasus, another diglti, and so forth, 
for a long time ; but one of them hit it at last. 



32 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



They had another game which was this : Herr Wolke gave the 
command in Latin and they imitated the noises of the different ani- 
mals, and made us laugh until we were tired. They roared like lions, 
mewed like cats, just as they were bid. 

Herr Wolke asked the children what he should draw. Some one 
answered, Leonem. He then pretended he was drawing a lion, but 
put a beak to it ; whereupon the children shouted, Non est leo — leo- 
nes non habent rostrum ! In the next exercise dice were produced and 




Nature Interest — Saving the Tadpoles 
Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 

the children threw to see who should give an account of an engrav- 
ing. The engraving represented workmen at their different trades, 
and the child had to explain the process, the tools, etc. 

Montaigne and Eichter alike attached the greatest serious- 
ness and significance to the play of children. Spencer thought 
that instruction should excite interest and therefore be pleas- 
urable. He says : " Experience is daily showing with greater 
clearness that there is always a method productive of inter- 
est, — even of delight, — and it turus out that this method 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 33 

proved by all other tests to be the right one." Play, free and 
spontaneous exercises, he says, are better than gymnastics. 

In 1796 appeared a remarkable book by Guts Muths, 
instructor of gymnastics at Schnepfenthal. This book, Spiele 
zur Uehung und Erliolvng des Koerpers des Geistes, had a 
great infhience upon the physical training of the German 
people. Guts Muths desired to revive interest in active 
games, wliich he believed had degenerated during the INIiddle 




Gatheking Wild Floweks 
Photograph by F. S. Andrus 

Ages. Believing with Plato that the games of youth were of 
political and national importance, he wished to counteract 
effeminacy and ennvii and develop vigor of body and zest in 
life by joyous, strenuous, but innocent sports. He greatly 
discountenanced games of chance, believing that they helped 
to cause a weakening of the nation, especially the nobility. He 
considered card games objectionable mainly because they 
crowded out active games, but he thought they were less 
objectionable in the case of laborers who obtained active 
exercise in their work. 



34 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Guts Muths considered that the natural impulse to activ- 
ity is the creator of play, and that ennui is always and only a 
favoring condition. The first object of play is the pleasure 
of the activity, the second the recovery or protection from 
ennui. Health of body and joyousness of spirit are of first 
importance in the rearing of children. The moral influence 
of play is self-evident. Ennui he considered one of the most 
oppressive of evils, — a sickness. Merriment and joyousness 
should be spread abroad. If men were only always joyous, 
there would be far less evil in the world. Guts Muths 
speaks of the value of having the sensitiveness and "corners" 
rubbed off in the plays and games of children, as a prepara- 
tion for life ; also of the value of having older people show an 
iuterest in the plays of children. The child opens his heart 
to the teacher thereby and they meet on common ground. 

Guts Muths speaks of the fact that animals play ; dogs, 
fishes, in fact all things, play. He quotes Wieland to the 
effect that work is against the purpose of nature. The most 
beautiful arts of the Muses are plays. " Artists play with 
nature, poets with their creative power, philosophers with ideas, 
beauties with our hearts, and kings, alas, with our heads." 

Guts Muths emphasized the recreative side of play. He 
admitted that love of play takes away the child's desire to 
work. The child desires to play and neglects his work ; but 
if this continues, the fault lies in the education. The child 
acquires a love of work only by habit and routine. No one 
works except from necessity and then from habit. 

Guts Muths described many games under two main clas- 
sifications, — Active Plays and Sitting or Rest Plays. These 
are subdivided into several classes, as Plays of Observation 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



35 



and Judgineut, Plays of Attention, Plays of Fantasy and 
Wit, Purely Bodily Plays; also Plays of Memory, Plays of 
Taste, and Plays of the Understanding and Higher Judgment. 
But it is from Pestalozzi and Froebel that our primary 
schools have inherited most that is in line with the play activ- 
ities of children, — the grades more largely from Pestalozzi, the 
kindergarten, of course, from Froebel. Pestalozzi's conception 
that education is a growth, — " the outward evolution of an 











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Nature Interest — Gathering Specimens 



inward life," — was as old as Socrates, but Pestalozzi breathed 
anew into it the spirit of a living truth. The self-activity of 
the child became his guidmg star, the child's contact with 
natural objects and reaction to environment, the means. 
While Pestalozzi was lacking in logic and sense of proportion, 
thereby faihng in many minor matters and details, his intense 
and exalted humanity and the vitahty of truth have, with 
the addition of Froebel's teachings, given us much that is best 
in our primary schools to-day, — the principle of self-activity 
and of contact with nature. 



36 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

While Froebel has influenced our primary schools as a whole 
less than Pestalozzi, he has emphasized the doctrine of self- 
activity and, by a more watchful study of child nature, has 
thrown light upon the nature and meaning of self-activity, 
Froebel was the precursor of modern cliild study, — an evolu- 
tionist in education, so far as it was possible to be at that 
time. Besides his fundamental teaching of self-activity, of 
" inner necessity and impulse," he distinctly expresses a theory 
of recapitulation, and lays stress upon the importance of allow- 
ing the child to be himself at each succeeding stage. This, as a 
general statement, is about all that modern research and child 
study can say to-day, but as to the understanding of those 
stages, of their real significance, and of their relation to edu- 
cation, we know a very great deal more to-day than Pestalozzi 
or Froebel could possibly have known. Pestalozzi died in 
1827 and Froebel published his Education of Man in 1826, 
more than a quarter of a century before Darwin's immortal 
work on the Origin of Species appeared. And how much the 
studies of evolution made since then have clarified many 
problems of education and human interests ! 

A new conception of play. The studies of Perez, Preyer, 
Sully, Baldwin, Hall, and many others, and the host of pub- 
lications inspired in this country by President Hall, have 
emphasized and thrown light upon the postnatal evolution 
of children, as all well know. These have particularly empha- 
sized the biological and physiological aspects of child devel- 
opment and their relation to the mental. Froebel's attention 
was centered rather upon the recapitulation by the child of 
the steps of human knowledge. In common with Spencer, 
Comte, and probably also, as Professor Hailman suggests, 
with Pestalozzi in a measure, Richte, Goethe, Kant, Hegel, and 



PLAY TX EDUCATION 



37 



Herbart, Froebel lield that the genesis of knowledge in the 
individual must follow the same course as the genesis of 
knowledge in the race. Froeliel's evolution was one of social 




Photograph by Johu Boyd 



consciousness rather than one based on that of biology dat- 
ing back to Darwin and upon which students base their 
studies to-day. Evolution, child stud}', self-activit}', play, 



38 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

must have a somewhat different significauce to-day than they 
could possibly have had to Pestalozzi or Froebel. 

The Schiller-Speucer theory of play, discussed by Groos, 
was that play was due to an overflow of energy. The over- 
fed nerve cells must discharge. The same idea appears in 
Eichter, Guts Muths, and others. Froebel hkewise based 
it upon an inner overflow^ or impulse, but emphasized the 
mental rather than the ph}'sical aspect. Groos recognized 
the mfluence of this surplus energ}', but finds the real gen- 

,l«esis of play in inherited instincts or impulses, and its expla- 
nation in its preparation for future serious occupations m 
the struggle for lifel" Hall finds m play the motor habits 
and spirit of the past of the race persisting in the present. 
Gulick finds in it the manifestation of inherited tendencies 
toward certain activities allied to historic activities of the 
race, preserved by the principle of natural selection. The 
relation of play to the instincts has been noted by many 
others. , 

The dictvim of Froebel that the child should be allowed to 
be himself at each stage takes on a deeper significance when 
we understand that it is m the plastic period, or period of 
nascency of specific interests and powers, that may be pre- 
served to the child the countless hereditary impressions ; and 
it is then only that he may come mto full possession of his 
birthright, his by the right of transmission from countless' 
generations of tlie fittest of the race, and make them his 
own to transmit to generations still vmborn. I would not 
claim too much, but I cannot believe that there can be any 

Jir^ducation in the true sense of the word that does not deeply 
involve the emotions and the will, that does not take root in 
the inheritances that have come down from the motor habits 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



41 



of the race ; and as these motor habits, endeavoring to persist 
in the present, are involved in play, we iind there the surest 
and nearest approach to a true education of the child. Just 
as the physician in his search for a cure for consumption has 
circumscribed the earth and finally come back to the thing 
in all the world the simplest and nearest, the first demand 




A Young Boat Builder 
Photograph by John Boyd 

of the child upon entrance into the world, — fresh air, — so 
we in our search for the best means of educating our children 
are coming back to that which was the first expression of his 
awakening soul, — his play. 

The use of play in the schools of to-day. As Groos has 
said, there are two ways of making use of play in education : 
first, by introducing the playful into the work ; second, by 



3<^ EDUCATION BY TLAYS AND GAMES 

employing play as a means of development. But the playful 
^element in instruction should not be confused with genuine 
play. It is this playful element rather than genuine play 
that has been generally utilized by teachers. It is by no 
means unimportant when rightly used. The kindergarten has 
utilized this playful element more than actual play. Many 
of the ring games fall short of being real play, the incentive 
to the activity which the teacher supposes the child to have 
being foreign to the child at that stage of development. Much 
of the occupation work is nearer genuine play, especially wlien 
free. The kmdergarten is very wisely introducing free play 
more and more. The concrete examples of the use of the 
playful element in education, as given in the references to 
Basedow and others (page 31), will l)e helpful in making the 
distinction clear. The hist<jry of education furnishes many 
classical exam})les of the kind. Many devices of this nature 
are in use in primary schools, but the reader will readily rec- 
ognize that such exercises are not in the strict sense play. 
They are rather devices introducing, often very advanta- 
geously, the playful element in the work of instruction, and 
have been employed more or less by teachers, consciously or 
unconsciously, everywhere. But a far more serious and im- 
portant problem confronts us when we endeavor to make 
systematic use of real play in education. No one now ques- 
tions that play educates. rCan play be engrafted successfully 
into our system of education and still be play ? 

I have no hesitation in saying that I believe this can be 
done. The spontaneous j[)lays of children can readily be re- 
ferred to the instincts which prompt them. During the first 
years of life, play is the natural teacher of the child. Through 
play he becomes trained in the control and intelligent use of 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



41 



the motor and sensory apparatus of the body, necessary alike 
for the preservation of the individual and the race. As he 
gains in stature and pov^er his play conforms to higher activ- 
ities, through which and by which the race has advanced 
towards civilization. Some of these activities, now bequeathed 
to children as instinctive, are construction, imitation, acquis- 
itiveness, instinctive counting or tallying, love of music, color, 
representation, curiosity 
and discovery, emulation, 
pugnacity, sociability, or- 
ganization, and even seek- 
ing for causes and reason- 
ing. These all appear in 
their own good time, and 
use of them in the work of 
the school is practicable to 
a large degree. 

In physical education 
play furnishes a wholly 
adequate training for the 
normal child. Plays and 
games are now widely rec- 
ognized as an essential part 
of the course in physical 
trammg. Lists of games, courses of games, and books of 
games for school use are becoming common. The advantage 
of play over gymnastics is apparent, if one cites but a single 
distinction, \\liile the body may be considered a machine, 
it is a machine of internal and not external operation. The 
muscular system has reached its present form and develop- 
ment through movements executed in the accomplishment 




Making a S^iiAi'HODR 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 



42 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

of some purpose or ideal. The attention has been upon the 
thing to be accomplished and not on the movement itself. 
It is thus in the play of children. But in gynmastics the 
attention centers upon the movement itself, thereby reversing 
the natural order, destroying the spiritual element, and often, 
in the case of little children, inducing self-consciousness, 
awkwardness, and fatigue. " No possible scheme of physical 
training," says Dr. Gulick, " can. do so much for the child as 
his natural play, for his natural play is the result of selection 
working through unfathomable ages of evolution." 

Eecent 'studies have greatly emphasized the educational 
value of the motor play of the young child. Indeed the 
motor element in the earlier years of life may lie urged as 
not less important than the senses in the intellectual devel- 
opment of the child. The biologist tells us that the nervous 
system begins in a series of concentric rings. As the form 
of life advances the center, or citadel, is located in what is 
termed the head. Through all the orders of animal life the 
closest relation is observed between the development of the 
muscular system and the nervous system. ]\Iosso and others 
have produced much evidence to show this close relation. 
The more mobile the extremities of an animal are, the more 
intelligent it is. The most mobile parts of the body are, at 
the same time, the most sensitive. Romanes pointed out that 
the higher intelligence of monkeys and the highest intelli- 
gence of man are related to a more perfect instrument of 
motion, — the hand. It is in the hand region that the human 
brain is most differentiated from the brain of lower animals. 
The mutual relation of intelligence to movement is strik- 
ingly shown in a comparison of a low order of men with a 
higher, and of feeble-minded children with intelligeiit. The 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



43 



phenomena of muscular fatigue and mental fatigue are iden- 
tical. Muscular fatigue is accompanied by loss of power of 
attention, and fatigue of attention is accompanied by loss of 
muscular power. Neither chemically nor microscopically can 
be found any difference in the brain cells, and Mosso con- 
cludes that the psychic functions cannot be separated from 
the motor. In the human 
child at birtli the muscular 
system is more incomplete 
than in the case of any 
other animal. The same is 
true of the cerebral nerve 
fibers. Mosso says that 
this fact of the unde^'eloped 
state of the brain can be 
explained only by the fact 
that at birth the organs 
which affect movement are 
incomplete. The growth of 
the brain ceases very early 
in life, practically at eight 
years of age ; the muscular 
system grows on to ma- 
turity, to which time the 
structural development of the brain also continues. It is 
claimed that the sheathing of the cerebral nerve fibers with 
myelin, upon which depend the higher processes of thought, 
is best effected by muscular movements. In short, there is 
an interdependence of the muscular and nervous systems. 
In the development of the race the nervous system has ad- 
vanced as the muscular system has advanced, and the same 




Sculptors 
Photograph by John Boyd 



44 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

apparently holds true of the individual. As has l)een well 
observed, " there can be no muscular development without a 
corresponding development of the nervous system, nor can 
there be a well-balanced development of the nervous system 
without a development of the muscular system." 

The effect of the use of play on school work in general is 
worthy of mention, in passing. Teachers who had regularly 
made use of games in the middle of the afternoon session 
were unanimous in saying that the games revived the chil- 
dren, gave an added zest to their study, and made them more 
(juiet and responsive. Tests of the amount and accuracy of 
work done by the primary children after the afternoijn games 
showed a decided tfain in favor of the use of i^ames. 

Very much of the school work in nature study may be 
accomplished through play. The instinctive curiosity of 
children in natural objects and tlie instincts of hunting and 
collecting furnish incentives for wide and even systematic 
knowledge of nature. ]\Iuch work of this character has l:)een 
successfully done in the Andover Play School. Nothing 
could l)e simpler than to utilize these play interests in gain- 
ing a knowledge of the fauna and flora of a given locality. 
The universal passion of boys for hunting and exploring, for 
collecting stamps, buttons, cigarette pictures, tobacco tags, 
and what not, gains in interest and duration when turned 
upon bugs, butterflies, caterpillars, fishes and other water 
animals, flowers, nmierals, Indian relics, and the watching 
of birds and other woodcraft. To this kmd of play ]\Iaurice 
Thompson pays a tribute in The Boys' Book of Sports. 

The greatest scientists, pliilosophers, artists, and poets of the world 
in all ages have been ready to bear testimony to the debt they have 
owed to outdoor observations. No man is liberally educated who 



PLAY IN EDI CATION 



45 



does not know as much about nature as he does about books. The 
school of the woods and hills, fields and streams, is that from which 
our greatest thinkers have been graduated. And of its value as a 
physical training Professor IMahaffy says that not athletics of the 
gymnasia or palestra, but " field sports, hunting, shooting, fishing," 
have produced the finest type of man. 

The iustinct for construction can he made the motive for 
constructive work throughout all the grades of school work. 
Play has its influence 
here, even when the 
oliject made is lacking in 
specific interest to the 
child. A l)oy may make 
a joint at his bench and 
enjoy the work, althougli 
he has no use for the joint 
as such. His love of con- 
struction makes the ex- 
ercise pleasuralile, and in 
so far the construction i- 
based upon play; but 
when the object made is 
something that the boy 
desires for its own sake 
the play interest is genvi- 
ine. Here we have the much-needed opportunity of supplying 
the " motive for industrial effort." Just how far manual train- 
ing may have the genuine play interest and be satisfactory in 
educational ideal has not yet been determined. That there 
is a wide application of genuine play interest in manual train- 
ing has already been demonstrated. 




Making his own Jack-o'-lantkrn 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 



46 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

The value of play in moi^al training has often been called 
to the notice of teachers. If the theory of evolution throws 
any light upon education, it certainly throws light upon the 
moral training of children. Virtues vary witli the period of 
development. Unselfishness in a child of three may be a 
sign of weakness and not of strength. In his play is devel- 
oped the selfhood of the child. In the play of the boy are 
developed individuality and sense of personal power, with 
some sense of relation to others. In the games of youth the 
individual becomes subordinated to the whole. The selfish- 
ness, or selfhood, of the child of three becomes the basis 
of the individuality of tlie adult ; the willfulness of tlie child 
makes possible the determination, persistence, and strong 
will of the man ; the excessive self-confidence and self-praise 
of the boy of ten become later in life the basis of tempered 
self-assertion and self-respect ; pugnacity in the youth, exer- 
cised in relation to a group, may develop into that capacity 
for righteous warfare of the public-spirited citizen. 

Elsewhere the author has written more fully on play in 
Character Building. It seems best here to omit further dis- 
cussion of the value of play in moral training, of the relation 
of health and joyousness to goodness, of the many hardy 
virtues inculcated in play, the " rubbing off of corners," the 
leveling influence of the playground, the bringing of moral 
distinctions within the child's experience, and the helpful- 
ness of the coming together of adults and children at times 
upon common ground, in order to insert the following letter 
which illustrates in a striking way how attention to school- 
yard play may aid the discipline of the school. 

In September, 1901, I took charge of the Ehn Street School. This 
school consisted of about five hundred and fifty children in grades 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 47 

above the third. It was the most centrally located in the city and the 
district extended for more than a mile along the river bank, embracing 
the larger portion of the main street and the business section of the 
city. The entire Italian colony and about one half of the Hebrew 
population were included within the boundaries of the district. 

In such a district many homes are merely sleeping places for the 
healthy, active childi'en. The small yards, the congested and unat- 
tractive tenements, and the alluring attractions of the theaters and 
streets cause the children, especially the boys, at an early age to 
spend the greater part of their waking hours in play or work or 
mere idling away from home, uncontrolled amidst the city's turmoil 





,^^ >■■;- 






#ti^' 


^Ti^MM '^^^ 


mi 






■«]| B i 


°J 


s 


'^W^k 






5®?T^ 


Ji^ 


^^^"^m 



TuE Elm Street ISchuol Yard 

and temptations. Cigarette smoking, the theater-going habit, petty 
stealing from fruit stands and stores, lawlessness and truancy, are 
some of the outward manifestations of the street-developed character. 
In this district the school building was a four-story structure 
located in the center of a lot containing about two thirds of an acre. 
On each side of the building was a play yard with strip of lawn in 
front. On the first floor of the building the lowest panes of glass in 
the windows were painted white, to prevent the children from looking 
out on the street. It is said that })risoners were formerly marched along 
this street to the police court and that the distractions thus caused 
seemed to justify the coating of the windows. However true this may 
be, the appearance of the police van in the vicinity or the ringing of 
the city fire alarm was sufficient at any time to empty the yard. 



48 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Such a school naturally presented problems in discipline and 
truancy. For the year ending June, 1901, there were recorded 
against it ninety-nine cases of corporal punishment and two hundred 
and eighty-one half days of truancy, the school in these respects 
having the worst reputation in the vicinity. I have reason to believe 
that the ninety-nine cases of pimishment reported included only the 
cases in which the ferule was employed, — probably not a large per- 
centage of the actual number, if the term " corporal punishment " 
were strictly interpreted. Ordinarily, teachers who work iinder such 
conditions become pessimistic and lose sight of high ideals in being 
forced to accustom themselves to practices against which their finer 
feelings and better judgment rebel. 

The boys' play yard was small and was covered with a loam which 
made it unfit for use in damp weather. In such a yard, without 
equipment of any kind, and with such a large number of boys, a 
principal quite naturally and easily fell into the role of policeman, 
pi-ohibiting games and suppressing activity. Such a policy, thougli 
[irobably employed l)y most of our principals to-day, drives children 
into the street and is one of the chief causes of truancy. 

Four or five weeks after the opening of school we set about 
improving our yard. The city covered it with a mixture of broken 
stones and sand. A wooden frame containing four pairs of rings 
and two horizontal bars was erected. The rings were of iron and 
were fastened to the frame by rope. The bars were each about six 
feet in length and were made of two-inch iron pipe. Eight boys 
could exercise at one time on this apparatus, and it soon dev-eloped 
that rajiid and vigorous exercise was necessary in order to enable the 
waiting lines of boys to participate in the pleasure. From time to 
time other pieces of apparatus were added until, in about a year, 
we had in the boys' yard the following in addition to the frame 
above : two punching bags, a twelve-pound shot, apparatus for high 
jumping and pole vaulting, game of skittles or out-tloor bowling, and 
an oval race track one thirtieth of a mile in length. As the yard was 
too small to allow unrestricted .ball throwing, bases were painted 
on the brick pavement at one ena'of 'the playground, and the boys 
were interested in the pitchers' art. Care was taken in the selection 
and jilacing of apjiaratus that the yard might continue to be available 



PLAY IN EDUCATION" 



49 



for free lalay. The large frame and track were permanent featm-es 
of the yard, the others were removed when not in use. Some of the 
apparatus was made by the boys. The city did not provide or pay for 
any of it. 

Some instruction in the use of the various pieces of apparatus 
was attempted with sufficient success to wan-ant the belief that such 
work as directors now do so admirably in indoor gymnasiums could 
be duplicated on a larger scale in grammar-school playgrounds. 
The rings, punching bags, shot, and race track seemed to hold the 




Boys making a Doll House (to be furnished by primary children) 
By permission of W. A. Baldwin 

interest most strongly. The track was used for team or relay races 
and occasionally for bicycle races. Long-distance running was quietly 
liracticed. A thirty-foot rope was frequently used for tug of war. 

All the pieces of this outdoor gymnasium were placed entirely 
at the disposal of the boys, and although I was told by those who 
had been connected with the school a dozen or more years that 
every movable piece would disappear, not even a bolt was stolen or 
lost during the entire four years. The yard became very popular. 
Boys were often using the gymnasium an hour before school in the 
morning ; there were hasty lunches and constant activity at noon, 



50 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



and an hour after the closing of the afternoon session generally 
found the apparatus still in use. Saturdays the boys begged to be 
allowed to play in the yard, and the janitor often kindly allowed the 
privilege. Neighborhood boys, not members of the school, uncertain 
of the principal's disposition toward them, entered the yard diffidently 
and experimented witli the bars and rings and punching bags. Dele- 
gations of boys from other schools 
visited us to take notes and meas- 
urements. The city fire alarm 
was no longer strong enough to 
empty the yard, and prisoners 
received only occasional glances 
as they entered the courthouse 
across the way. Many of the boys 
sold newspapers, and sensational 
criminal court news seldom 
escaped them. They knew when 
to expect the prisoners for trial 
at the courthouse and often 
looked forward to their arrival. 
I have seen as many as two hun- 
dred boys, as if with one impulse, 
rush out of the side gate during 
a noon hour to gaze upon a pris- 
oner as he was escorted from the 
police wagon to the courthouse 
door. However, from the time 
the first piece of apparatus was 
piTt in, I never saw more than two or three boys at one time suffi- 
ciently interested to step outside the yard. 

For several winters the yard was flooded and used as a skating 
rink by both girls and boys. At the first snowfall the boys cleared 
the yard, piling the snow in the form of a dike around the edge. In 
a week or two this froze solid and formed a basin into which the 
city water was poured. Parents were especially interested in this 
feature of the outdoor work and urged its continuance, as they feared 
to have their children skate on the treacherous Connecticut near by. 




Windmill made by Boys at the 
Andover Play School 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 51 

The girls had sufficient room on their lawn for the use of two 
croquet sets. Their yard was so small that it seemed best to leave 
it without apparatus. 

The outdoor gymnasium and supervised play made the boys hap- 
pier in their school life. It raised the tone of the school by bringing 
about a better disposition toward teachers and toward school work. 
It brought the principal in closer touch with the children and, 
while increasing his knowledge of them, strengthened his influence 
over them. The teachers took advantage strongly of the enthusi- 
asm and good feeling. They voluntarily discarded their ferules and 
worked for higher ideals. We interpreted " corporal punishment " 
strictly and reported accordingly. We did not deem it wise to abol- 
ish it entirely, but the number of cases was reduced seventy or eighty 
per cent. The most noticeable change, however, was in the truancy 
record. The following speaks for itself : 

Half Days of Truancy rf.corded against the School 

Year ending June, 1901 281 

Year ending June, 1902 106 

Year ending June, 1903 79 

Year ending June, 1904 46 

Year ending June, 1905 33 

J. L. Riley, Principal 

Particularly in the vacation-school movement, with its far- 
reaching social and moral influence, play naturally takes a 
prominent place. The following, reprinted from "The Country 
Boy," Massachusetts Civic League, Leaflet No. 8, is suggestive. 

In certain schools in Andover, Massachusetts, there were 
circulated blank forms like the following : 

ANDOVER PLAY SCHOOL 

July 16 -August 24 

APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION 

I wish to attend the Andover Play School. I prefer the following 
occupations in the order in which I have numbered them. 



52 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

(Choose five) 
Collections : Minerals, stamps, coins (if you prefer some other, 

please mention what). 
Cooking (for girls twelve or over). 
Draw iNG. 

Field Work : Butterflies, birds, fishes, flowers, and ferns. 
Gardening : Flowers, vegetables. 
Outdoor Games and Plays (mention your favorite games and 

plays). 

Mechanics: Boats and boat sailing, dam and water wheel, machin- 
ery, steam or electric motors. 
Dancing (girls only). 
Dramatics (girls only). 

Music: Singing, orchestra, ])iau() (mention the instrument you 
can play). 

Photography (cameras not furnished). 

Sloyd : Basketry, cardboard and paper work (girls and boys under 
twelve), woodwork. 

Swimming. 
Printing (boys only). 

Each applicant is requested to name any occupation or study that 
may be preferred to those mentioned above. 

Name, 

Age, 

School and grade, 

I approve of this application, 

Parent's signature, 

Note. Applications must be handed in before April 1. The fee for the entire 
term is fifty cents, and the fee must be paid and a ticket of admission obtained be- 
fore July 1. If for any reason any one who has obtained a ticket cannot attend 
the school, the money will be refunded. But in every case the full fee must be paid 
for one week's attendance or more. 

There are to be three schools : one for boys and girls from live to eight years 
of age; one for girls from nine to fourteen; one for boys from nine to fourteen. 
This application is to be tilled out by children nine and over. Parents may apply 
for children under nine. 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 53 

Applications came in promptly, and soon passed the hun- 
dred mark, when all other applications were refused. There 
were about fifty applications signed by boys from nine to 
fourteen, about thirty by girls from nine to fourteen, and 
twenty -odd by parents for children under nine. The choices 
of the boys fell in about the following order of preference, 
yet there was striking uniformity, each occupation having a 
goodly number of choices : outdoor games, woodwork, swim- 
ming, field work, gardening, printing, orchestra ; for the girls, 
cooking, basketry, field work, outdoor games, dancing, swim- 
ming, dramatics, gardening. Drawing was also popular with 
both boys and girls. 

The public-school plant was used, the only additions being 
the sloyd benches and tools, printing press and type, loaned 
by the Andover Guild, which organization was the source 
of financial support. The play school opened at 8.30 a.m. 
and closed at noon, or as soon thereafter as the children 
could be driven away to their dinners ; but some of the 
children and some of the teachers usually returned in the 
afternoon. The term lasted six weeks, from about the middle 
of July to the last week in August. It was the original pur- 
pose of the play school to enroll those boys of the community 
who spent the long summer vacation in the streets, in rough 
and profane ball games, in inordinate swimming, predatory 
expeditions, and like occupations ; but the earnest petitioning 
of not a few of the best people in tlie town for the admission 
of their children finally opened the doors of the school for 
some children of most excellent home influences. 

Perhaps the favorite occupation, on the whole, was the 
woodwork. There was a complete sloyd outfit and a tramed 
sloyd teaclier. No attempt was made to hold the boys to a 



54 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



formal course. The woodwork was to serve as a sort of 
supply shop for the apparatus used in school. The boys made 
their own butterfly nets and fish nets for the nature work. 
They made the mounting boards used in mounting the speci- 
mens, the cases for the permanent collections, developing 
cages for the caterpillars, aquaria for the fishes, box traps for 




Archery — Bows mai>k m the Boys 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

catcliing squirrels, etc. If a boy was interested in archery, 
he made his bow and arrows ; if in cricket, a bat ; if in kite 
flying, a kite ; if in making a present for a younger brother 
or sister, a toy table, perhaps. Mothers, too, reaped the bene- 
fits of the shop, for a boy often turned from his toy making 
to the making of a sleeve board, ironing board, bread board, 
shelf, or something else for the house. Sometimes the boys 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



55 



united in making some giant affair of common interest, — a 
log house, a great windmill which supplied power for turn- 
ing the grindstone, a dam and sluiceway for the water wheel, 
or a catamaran for the swimming pond. 

The nature work was hardly less popular than the toy 
making. Nearly every morning there might have been seen 
a company of ten or a dozen boys starting out with a leader 
in search of Ijutterflies or fishes, and for the incidental study 
of birds or frogs or snakes, or whatever came to their notice 



^- 



H 



6 » I 



•I 



7H 






^ 


^bS'- 


\ 


^_^f? 


f^) 


^~%.^-' 


1 


«s3i|e^ 




^K* 




^«1» 



!/. 



A Street Jjov's C'ollec tion 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

while hunting. The older l)oys devoted tliemselves mainly 
to the butterflies, the younger to the fishes. Nearly every 
species of butterfly to be found in Andover during the season 
was captured, many kinds of caterpillars were taken and 
developed into chrysalides in the cages, and nearly all the 
different kinds of fishes to be found in the streams and ponds 
were caught and studied. The work consisted largely of out- 
door tramps, but there was also laboratory work, and the de- 
scription and drawing of the worm, chrysalis, and butterfly. 
Honeybees in an observation hive and ants m nests made 



56 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

of school slates covered witli glass were watched. Some of 
the ants' nests were successfully kept and watched for months, 
one boy keepmg a colony all winter. The microscope was 
frequently used in the laboratory work. Notebooks on fishes 
were also kept. The interest of the boys was deepest in the 
gathering and general observation and naming of speci- 
mens, the watching and feeding of the fishes, and less in the 
minuter observation, drawing, and naming of parts. The zeal 
in hunting specimens was often intense. It was no uncom- 
mon thing to see a boy, when the school was not in session, 
alone, with a heavy pail on liis arm, a fish net in liis hand, 
sweltering along in the dog-day sun, seeking some new treas- 
ure for his aquarium. Boys who had good luck on these occa- 
sions — as, for instance, in catching some handsome speckled 
trout — would seek the leader in feverish excitement to com- 
municate the great achievement. 

The ignorance of many boys whose environment by no 
means justified their lack of knowledge was sometimes sur- 
prising. A grammar-school boy, visiting tlie school, knew the 
fislies simply as fishes, being unable to name with certainty 
a single species. Another boy, who was within one year of 
the high school, brought to school in high elation one morn- 
ing some "speckled trout" for the aquarium which proved 
to be tiny spotted salamanders, whose legs presented no diffi- 
culty to him in his classification. 

Allied to the nature work was the gardening. A part of 
the school yard was plowed and a definite portion allotted 
to each boy who chose gardening. Vegetables of various 
kinds were planted. Flowering plants were also intrusted 
to the boys' care, and were taken home and transplanted at 
the close of the school. The following spring many of these 



TLAY IN P:1)UCATI0N 



57 



boys were reported as having started gardens of their own 
at home. 

The second period of the day, one hour in length, was spent 
in outdoor play. In one section of the playground might 
have been seen a group of boys engaged 'in a match at 
archery. In another section the older l)oys, perhaps cUvided 




A Bov's Vivarium and Aquarium 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 



into opposing sides by some natural grouping wliich lent zest 
to emulation, were hard at some spirited game of ball. Else- 
where some of the younger or less athletic boys were play- 
ing at tenpins on the smooth driveway, or at bean bags. 
There were also, at times, football, ringtoss, tag games, boxing, 
wrestling, racing, jumping, vaulting, gymnastic tricks, kite 



58 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



flying, boat racing i at Rabbit's Pond, swimming races at 
Pomp's or in the Shawsheen. Three times a week there was 
a division in swimming. The swimming lessons often served 
as a good opportunity for collecting outdoor specimens or 
plants for the aquaria. On rainy days there were indoor 

games, which partook more 
of the nature of social or 
parlor games, and wliich 
were intellectual rather 
than pliysical. 

The musically inclined 
boys were always eager for 
an orchestra. This took the 
form of the " kindersym- 
phonie." Tlie talents and 
attainments of the boys 
made the music necessarily 
crude, Init it was much en- 
joyed by them. The violin- 
ists were children who 
came for the orchestra 
alone, the play-school boys 
lieing confined mainly to 
time-beating instruments. 
There was also a class in piano playing wliich met twice a 
week, the school piano being used in practicing. 

1 These boat races were races of the sail boats. made by the boys. One 
day I bought a handsome steel yacht at a toy store in Boston and offered 
it as a prize to the boy who could make a boat that would beat it. When 
the trial came off there was n't a boat made by the boys that did n't out- 
sail mine ; and I was somewhat embarrassed, but secretly proud, for 
there wasn't a boy who would accept my boat as a gift. 




-J PoLp Vaulting 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 



59 



The printing department appealed to some as real play. 
The press served to print the names of the boys in the 
several departments, the baseball teams, headings for school 
exercise papers, cards, some billheads, and, best of all, a four- 
page paper containing compositions by the boys on the work 
of the various departments, names of prize takers, cuts of 
drawings made in the nature work, lists of specimens cap- 
tured, and the like. 

Besides the drawing in the nature work there was a divi- 
sion in drawmg for those who preferred it to any other 
occupation they might have during that period. The work 




Girls MAKiNti Use uf Natukal Swimming Pool 



took mainly the form of large, free-hand drawings from objects. 
This was more nearly allied to the regular school work than 
that of any other department, unless we except the library, 
from which the boys eagerly drew books of stories, history, 
or nature for home reading. 



60 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



The occupations of the girls were very similar to those of 
the boys in some respects and very different in others. The 
girls had no chance at general toy making as had the boys, 
but they cooked, made dolls' hats, dolls' hammocks, and 
baskets, of rattan and rafha, and did some fancy work. They 
played their outdoor games, went off on field excursions after 



Ifll W • ? 1( I !,' I I « I! • !| * I f 




i*»',..— ,., 




r> 







E.XIIllUT Ul' Ha^kkts 

Photograph by C. S. Moore 

ferns or insects, and went swimmmg. The facilities of most 
country towns in the matter of swimmmg for girls are much 
underrated. Two places were readily found where girls might 
be taught to swim. One was in a pond near a house where 
a good opportunity for dressing was given in a near-by shed. 
Another was later selected as even better, in a secluded spot 
along the Shawsheen River. Here the girls went freely, 



PLAY IX EDUCATION 



61 



liappily, and unmolested, witli their teacher, and several 
learned to swim in a short time. 

Dancing and dramatics occupied a portion of the girls' 
time, and at the close of the school a play was very suc- 
cessfully given to the public, the proceeds being given to 
the school. 

Some of the girls took gardening on equal terms with the 
boys, and raised their share of flowers and vegetables, which 
were in due season appropriated for their homes. 

While the conditions in Andover were favorable for carry- 
ing on a school like that described, they were l.)y no means 




Dramatics 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 



unusual. I have yet to see a country village where a similar 
school could not be successfully conducted, with the accom- 
panying benefits to the children, so many of whom are, with- 
out question, injured by the experiences of the long summer 



62 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

vacation. Teachers there are in abundance who would gladly 
work in a vacation school for the price of their board. The 
salaries paid the " faculty " and helpers employed in the An- 
dover Play School averaged about four dollars a week. The 
highest salary paid was ten dollars, and the lowest nothing. 
During the past year a most successful school has been con- 
ducted in Andover by two teachers in the public schools, 
the total expense of which was less than three hundred and 
fifty dollars, the school enrolling sixty-five children. But such 
schools can be run at a much less cost if the community is 
willing that the teachers serve without pay, and playgrounds 
with many of the accompanying benefits may be conducted 
at about as near no expense as the community will allow. 

The following may be of interest as showing tlie impres- 
sions that parents got of the value of the playground influence 
on their children. They are direct quotations. " It kept him 
off the streets, and 1 knew where he was " ; " seemed per- 
fectly happy all through the summer-school term " ; " was 
better able to begin his scliool studies " ; " increased his 
happiness by having something to do"; "kept him out of 
mischief " ; " kept his mind occupied " ; " had liis own garden 
at home, and took care of it, — somethmg he was not inter- 
ested in before " ; " helped him at school " ; " made good use 
of things he learned " ; " was much interested in insects " ; 
" enjoyed himself every day " ; " was more agreeable, as he 
had something to think of " ; " set Mm thinking " ; " made 
home life more interesting in constructing things he saw at 
school " ; " made liim more ambitious " ; " made him inter- 
ested in his learning " ; " made a pigeon coop, studies birds 
a good deal and butterflies " ; " made him brighter and 
quicker " ; " made him good in his manners " ; " did him a 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 63 

good deal of good on his character and disposition." These are 
typical of many expressions used by parents who felt that 
their boys were, through the play school, benefited rather 
than injured by the long vacation. They are by no means 
exhaustive of what might be said m summary of the value 
of playgrounds for country children, but they certainly will 
prove suggestive to those who are concerned about the chil- 
dren of the streets of our country towns. 

Gulick, in a remarkable paper on the " Psychological, Peda- 
gogical, and Eeligious Aspects of Group Games," dignifies the 
moral and social influences of ball and athletic teams. Lee 
places group games at the head of all schools of citizenship 
and says : 

In playing these games the boy is not going through the forms of 
citizenship, — learning parliamentary law, raising points of order, and 
moving the previous question, — he is being initiated into its essence, 
actually and in a very vivid way participating in the thing itself. 
He is experiencing citizenshi}), not learning about it ; undergoing 
the actual and habitual experience of losing the sense of his own 
individuality in that of a larger whole. 

To the boy playing football, tlie losing himself in the conscious- 
ness of the team, utterly subordinating his individual aims to the 
common purpose, is not a matter of self-sacrifice but of self-fulfill- 
ment, — the coming into his birthright, the satisfying of his human 
necessity of socialization, of becoming a part of a social or political 
whole. What is being born in that boy is the social man, — man 
the politician, man the citizen, — and it is my belief that in most 
instances this political or social man will get himself thoroughly and 
successfully born in no other way. . 

In these and other departments of school work the applica- 
tion of the play interest will depend much upon tlie adaptation 
of work to the stage of the child's development. Arithmetic, 
language, science, and history may be made to swing into line 



64 EDUCATION P.Y PLAYS AND GAMES 

with the child's interests and powers. When such is done 
there is not enough difference between play and work to quar- 
rel about ; and the highest type of work is the work which 
has the largest amount of play in it. The great men of all 
ages, in every department of life's work, have had this play 
interest in their work. As Brinton says, " The measure of 
the value of play is the amount of work there is in it; and 
the measure of the value of wcjrk is the amount of play there 
is in it." 

To aid us in using play in education to the best advantage, 
we have the many studies of child development and interests. 
The following chapter is a very brief summary of the results 
of the best of these studies, and is intended to make clearer 
the principles invfjhed in tlie choice of the plays and games 
included in the course to follow. 



CHAPTEE III 

THE PERIODS OF CHILDIIOOD AND THEIR RELATION 
TO A COURSE OF PLAYS AND GAMES 

Period One (Ages 0-3). The rapid and wonderful changes 
through which a child passes prior to birth are hardly more 
wonderful than the changes of the first years of life. At birth 
the brain fibers are not complete, the nerve endings in the skin 
are not perfected, the different parts of the brain are not con- 
nected, and the striped muscles are very undeveloped. The 
child is without intelligence and without control over the 
muscles of the body. He cannot see, cannot hear, scarcely 
feels the single prick of a pin ; but at once under the stimuli 
of the world without and the impulse of life witliin all things 
begin to change. Gradually sensations of taste, smell, liear- 
ing, temperature, touch, and sight are received and recorded. 
The parts of the brain become connected and the different 
sense perceptions become associated. 

Meantime the brain and body are growing at a marvelous 
rate. The weight of the Ijody trebles the first year and the 
length increases seven or eight inches. The brain increases 
two or three times its weight the first year and about ten per 
cent more during each of the next two years. 

The sensations which are pouring in tlirough all the ave- 
nues cause their characteristic changes iii the brain, and mem- 
ory begins, very weak at first, and comparatively weak even 
at the end of the period, for few adults remember back of the 

65 



QQ EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

fourth year. As early as the sixth mouth movements seen and 
sounds heard are reproduced through the impulse of imitation. 
Meantime the rapidly growing body is constantly exercised. 
Every waking hour is spent in almost constant physical move- 
ment. These movements, beginning in the reflex, instmctive, 
and impulsive movements, increase in intensity in the sub- 
sequent motor plays of the child. With the accumvdation of 
sense perceptions and the development of association, concep- 
tion and reasoning begin, but reasoning remains through this 
period and long after largely a matter of association. Finally, 
with the development of association, memory, control of 
speech muscles, and imitation, speech appears. 

These years then seem to be given largely to the develop- 
ment of the senses, getting control of the fundamental move- 
ments of the body and its members, and the acquisition of 
speech. This has been termed the period of physical adjust- 
ment. It is very easy here to see the relation of play to men- 
tal and bodily development. Practically the whole psychic 
life and all conscious bodily movements conform to the 
nature of play. The child play of this period is determined 
by the peculiar needs and conditions of the developing brain 
and body. At first the interest centers about the mouth. 
Everythmg the child can grasp is crowded into the mouth 
with both hands and feet. As each sense develops keen 
interest centers upon it. Gradually the different senses are 
associated with each other, and each new power acquired adds 
new zest to the interest. With the ability to sit erect, for 
instance, comes increased interest in seeing ; with increased 
interest in handling objects comes a new interest in experi- 
menting with the senses ; with the acquisition of creeping 
comes an added interest in the room and its contents, and 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



67 



vice versa. All the way along, interest follows the hne of 
developmg- powers. 

It is all-important that the environment should he such 
as to give suitable opportunity for the natural plays of this 
period. These plays we may briefly catalogue: sucking; grasp- 
ing ; mussing ; moutliing ; kicking and other movements of 
the limbs ; experimenting with the senses, — taste, touch, 







Building a Dam 

sight, hearing, smell, temperature; getting control of the 
body ; speech, as in bal)bling ; imitation ; creeping, climbing, 
walking ; talking ; memory, repetition, recalling ; exploring ; 
construction (destruction), the plays constantly widening the 
field of motor activity, sense perception, memory, imitation, 
and speech. To these may be added interest in passive motion, 
as in riding and swinging, interest in rhythm, — the basis of 
delight in Mother Goose and mother plays, and music. 



68 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Period Two (Ages 4-6). Tliis period, just preceding or 
iucluding the first school years, is a continuation of the first 
period in many essential features. There is still a rapid growth 
of the body and brain (the brain growing but little in size 
after the sixth year) and a predominance of the sensory and 
motor in the psychic life. The sensory side, however, is grad- 
ually being overtaken and surpassed by the motor. The 
memory is strengthening, the auditory and motor images seem- 
ing to be more distinct" and lasting than the visual. Sensory 
knowledge is far in advance of judgment. Eeasoning is still 
largely a matter of association, resulting frequently in ludi- 
crous and false inferences. / Since the child lacks so in experi- 
ence and observation of things in relation, his understanding 
is deficient in grasp of relation and proportion, and he jumps 
at conclusions. Butter is thimght to come from butterflies; the 
smoke makes the sky; water is alive because it runs; if one 
hand is the right hand, the other must be the wrong hand ; a 
holiday is a day to "holler" in. It is a guessing period. Imita- 
tion, which we saw was well developed by the second year, 
has changed somewhat in character. The first imitations were 
largely direct imitations of movements and sounds of adults. 
During these years the cliild continues to imitate adults 
rather than other children or animals, but the imitation is 
less direct, less instinctive and impulsive. With his wider 
knowledge and increased power of doing, the child begins 
to adapt the act of the adult to some play idea of his own. 
Instead of simply making believe sweep or dust, he plays he 
has a house and actually sweeps and dusts it. Coupled with 
the strong impulse to imitate is the great suggestibility of 
this period. It is preeminently a time of suggestion and imi- 
tation. The imagination is very active. Having an increased 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



69 



fund of sensory facts and being unhampered by sense of rela- 
tion and proportion, he builds freely with his mental images. 
Familiar ideas are altered to suit a passing fancy : a box 
becomes a boat, a playmate a horse. Imaginary playmates, 
even, are created. Playing with the imagination often becomes 
a source of cliildish hes : it is also the basis of the animistic 




i'i:i,Li\o THE Tkkks 
Photograph by C. S. Mooi-e 

tendency wliicli invests even the pebbles with life. The devel- 
oping interest in cause and effect and in the relations of tilings 
is expressed in the passion for questioning. Interest in com- 
mon objects and toys culminates at the close of this period, 
intensifying interest in ownership, collecting, and hoarding. 

After the fourth year children play with other children 
rather than with adults. It is not an unselfish period, however. 



70 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

The child is unable as yet to grasp well the relation of his acts 
to other chiklren. He is selfish and self-assertive ; in liis play 
with other children his activity has little cooperation. What 
he does is for himself ; desires clash, and quarrels are frequent. 
It is stUl a period of keen and volatile emotions ; anger, jeal- 
ousy, fear, syiiqmthy, pity, and love are easily aroused. 

The play activities of this period reflect the characteristics 
of growth and development at this time. They center about 
free motor activity, largely for its own sake and not for the 
sake of results ; about common objects and what may be done 
with them ; experimentation of the senses and accumulation 
of sense knowledge ; memory ; explanation of things, guessmg, 
questioning ; play of the imagination ; and especially imitation. 
In these activities are iiaturall}' involved constructive play of 
a crude sort; a free use of the hands and common objects as 
. tools ; interest in plants and animals as playfellows ; exploring ; 
imitation plays, as house, store, trains, sewing, cooking ; count- 
ing, measuring; collecting and hoarding; story interest, rhythm, 
music, dancing. Nearly the whole field of interests is covered, 
but the character of the manifestation of those mterests is 
typical of the period and has largely to do with free motor 
activity, sense perception, and imitation. These facts are con- 
sistently held m mind in the selection of the plays, games, 
and toys mentioned in the Course of Plays and Games for 
this period. 

Period Three (Ages 7-9). Coming now to children of 
seven, eight, and nine years of age, we. need to note several 
important changes. The rapid brain growth of the previous 
periods ceases during this period, and the brain reaches nearly 
its full weight at about eight. In general, it is a period of 
rather slower physical development, including also a brief 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



71 



period of regression of indefinite length (for its culmination 
differs more or less in different individuals), which is impor- 
tant on account of the dangers attending it, but which parents 
and teachers have 'Seldom seriously considered. Somewhere 
about the eighth or ninth year there comes a setback to the 
chUd. There is a change in the circulatorv system, — the 




Selecting the Logs 
Photograph hy C. S. Moore 

veins and arteries are larger proportionately than the heart, 
and there is a tendency to heart weakness. Second dentition 
is taking place, and the child is liadly off as regards chewing 
surface, many children having from two to five of their teeth 
missing and from thirty to forty per cent of them diseased. 
The child is liable to toothache and disturbances of digestion. 
He fatigues more easily than formerly and is often thouglit to 
be lazy or stupid. Returns from teachers showed the smallest 



72 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

number of bright children and the largest number of dull 
children in this period. More children fail of promotion in 
this period than in any other. Just now there is a tran- 
sition from the diseases of children to those of adults, about 
half of the diseases occurring at this time belonging to the 
previous period and about half to adult life. There is an 
increased tendency to speech disorders, as shown in the 
studies of Dr. Hartwell. Dr. Hartwell's tables of the specific 
intensity of life show that, while from the age of seven to 
twelve there is generally a rapid increase in immunity from 
disease, yet at the age of eight to nine, for girls, there is a 
'lessened rate of increase, and at the age of nine to ten, for 
boys, there is an actual drop in specific intensity of life. On 
the whole it is a weak period, a period of transition, which 
Bryan considers as important as the dawn of puberty. 

The regression noted in this period King thinks is appar- 
ent rather than real, that it is a period of readjustment rather 
than one of regression. Interest now is shifting fjom the 
activity itself to the end accomplished, and the child has 
come to a realization of the need of a radical change in his 
adjustments, physical and psychical. He soon finds that 
his powers for accomplishing are far behind liis ideals, 
and he is bewildered and thrown back upon himself, halt- 
ing, as it were, until the new adjustments are working 
more smoothly. 

In this period the "reasoning powers are still weak, the 
understanding seeming to be best aided through suggestion 
and analogies. The questioning interest continues ; memory 
is strengthening. Imitation is perhaps less prominent than 
before, but the child is still very susceptible to imitation and 
suggestion. The child now, however, imitates the idea rather 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 73 

than the thing. Imagination continues very active and liegins 
to be of a creative type, but related more to the facts and 
needs of life. The animistic tendency so strong in the previ- 
ous period is weakening. 

The predominance of the sensory and motor in the psychic 
life of the child still continues and gives color to the play 
and game interests of the period. The senses are practically 
perfected and sensory interest continues very strong, while 
the motor activity is even greater than before. But the interest 
in motor activity is now shifting, as mentioned above, from 
interest in activity to interest in result. The child no longer 
simply drives nails into the soil or a board, — he tries to make 
something. He does not simply romp and run, — he plays 
a game. Details of motor activity are coming into prominence, 
and interest in skill is developing. AVith the child's conscious- 
ness of increasing power and skill, awakens interest in compe- 
tition. Therefore he begins to play games, that is, to play 
according to form and rule with other children, whereas 
before his play was largely free, informal, unorganized activ- 
ity. The child is not yet able to coordinate his activity with 
that of others, and there are as yet no truly cooperative games. 
In many games of this period sides are not chosen, each child 
playing for himself; but even when sides are chosen, the play 
remains for the most part individualistic. There is now 
approachmg culmmation in interest in traditional games, 
games of chase, and doll play. Interest continues high in 
common objects as toys, and in dramatic and representative 
play. Interest is very strong in collections. The constructive 
interest is centering upon the thing made. The child's ambi- 
tion is often quite beyond his skill, but his efforts are worthy 
of respect and encouragement. There is a strong general 



74 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



interest in natvire, plants, animals, pets, and in exploring. 
Kline finds at this age a third runaway period. In tliis period 
we find the tendency to play with other children increasing, and 
the cliild is not quite so selfish. With the development of 
the formal game interest we find an increasing regard for law. 
A tendency to tease and bully is common m children of this 
period, and is due perhaps to a sense of increasing power 




BUILIJIXG THE CaHIN 

Photograph by C. S. Moore 

and the desire to exercise it. Interest still liolds in fairy 
tales and folklore, but towards the close of the period inter- 
est in narrative history begins. 

This is, then, essentially a transition period. There is a 
general shifting all along the line, — in the growth of the 
nervous system, in rate of bodily growth, in the circulatory 
system, in dentition, in diseases, in interest. It seems to be a 
special office of this period, after having perfected the senses, 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



75 



to hegin to develop the finer coordinations of motor activity 
with sense judgments. To this end the shifting of the inter- 
est from activity to the result of the activity is helpful, in 
that it necessitates the development of skill. The plays and 
games of this period must involve motor activity of infinite 
variety, but with definite purpose and interest in the outcome. 
We see here the value of simple competitive games, traditional 



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The Cabin 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 



games, games of chase, constructive play, with an infinitude 
of common objects and with toys ; we also see the value of 
dramatic and representative play, and of doll play, of which 
latter Dr. Hall says, " The number of motor activities that are 
both inspired and unified by this form of play, and that can 
always be given wholesome direction, is almost incredil)le and 
has been too long neglected both by psychologists and teachers." 



76 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Nature does uot at any time deal with a section of the child 
but always with the whole child. She but places the emphasis 
differently at different periods. The emphasis peculiar to this 
period we have already pointed out. We must not fail, how- 
ever, to mention those other plays which involve the develop- 
ing powers of the child in every direction, — games involving 
experimentation of the mental powers, attention, observation, 
imagination, reasoning, memory, trial of the senses, number in- 
terest, collecting, nature interests of great variety, drawing, lan- 
guage plays, story interest, music, rhythm, and dancing, — all of 
which have their special value at this time of life and are to be 
found suggested in the Course of Plays and Games for this period. 

Period Four (Ages 10-12). This is the most important 
period in elementary education so far as the details of school 
work and the formation of habits are concerned. The body is 
not growing so rapidly, the brain has practically ceased grow- 
ing, and there is not the great functional advance which is to 
accompany the advent of puberty in the period following. 
There is a lull m the demands upon the system, — it is a 
time of storing up of energy. There is less liability to dis- 
ease. The specific intensity of life culminates in boys at from 
twelve to thirteen years, and in girls at from eleven to twelve. 
The heart is gaining in proportionate size and strength as 
compared to the size of the arteries, and tliere is less liability 
to fatigue than in the previous period. The child is at the 
height of physical activity. More games are played now 
than at any other age. 

In the nervous system, while the brain has practically 
ceased growing in weight it is changing rapidly in structural 
development. According to Clouston, the special import of 
tliis period m the nervous system is the coordination of 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



77 



muscular action and the senses. The coordinations begun in 
the previous period, but not developed to the point of fine 
adjustments, are now given depth and scope. This is the time 
when there must be laid the foundations of any future great 
skill. Skill in games, in manipulation, in the use of tools, in 
the playing of musical instruments, correctness and facility 
in pronunciation of foreign languages, cannot be so surely 




A Universal Passion 

acquired if delayed beyond this period. It is therefore the 
period for drill and the forming of neuro-muscular habits. 

Reasoning remains comparatively weak throughout this 
period, but is slowly strengthening. A tendency to critical 
judgment is appearmg. The perceptive powers continue 
active, and the cliild is capable of close observation. It is 
still an eye and ear period. Memory is likewise strengthening, 
particularly memory for objects and their names. Imagina- 
tion is active, suggesting here the value of objects and pictures 



78 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

for illustration. The animistic tendency is disappearing and 
superstitions are decreasing. The child is quite susceptible to 
suggestion, but he is influenced more by companions than 
by adults. He is never so removed from grown-ups as in this 
period. He is still selfish and self-assertive, yet gaining in 
social interest. He begins to form societies or clubs largely 
for games, athletics, and predatory expeditions ; but he unites 
with others rather for his own profit. In the cooperative 
games the individualistic element still remains prominent. 
Tliere is an increased regard for rule and law. 

In the matter of games, interest in running games is cul- 
minating. There is taking place a shifting of interest from 
games which are not cooperative to games which are coopera- 
tive. Interest in collections is at its height. The methods of 
collectmg are by finding and, in this period increasingly, by 
trading and buying. In nature, interest in pets, particularly 
in dogs and in the training of dogs, is rapidly increasing, reach- 
ing culmination in the next period. Interest in nature collec- 
tions is high. Great mterest in dolls is continuing. In drawing, 
interest centers upon action and the representation of one or 
two details, leaving the others in a jumble. The drawings are 
symbolic rather than correct representations. In construc- 
tion, interest increases in the details and skill of workman- 
ship. In literature the dominant interest of the boy is shown 
in preference for action and adventure. There is added inter- 
est in history, in historical biography, and in general litera- 
ture. The general puzzle interest culminates in mechanical 
pvizzles at eleven years of age, in geometrical puzzles at from 
twelve to thirteen. 

The games and plays of tliis period will be of great number 
and variety, involving great activit}', considerable skill, often 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 



79 



some cooperation, and will tend to further the development of 
the finer motor adjustments and the coordination of muscular 
action with sense judgments, which it is the special office of 
this period to develop. They will also invohe all the develop- 
ing powers of the child, each peculiar need of the boy and girl 
being met by the emphasis upon this or that feature of the 




Preparing for War 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 

activity which the awakening interests will determine. The 
Course of Plays and Games for this period endeavors to sug- 
gest such plays and games. 

Period Five. (Ages 13-15). Just as there was at about 
the age of eight or nine a period of readjustment of motor 
ideals, so at about twelve, the last year of the previous period, 
there is a time of halting, uncertainty, and readjustment of 



80 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

social ideals. We are now at the threshold of a new birth, a 
uew conception of life and of the use of powers. 

This is the period of most rapid bodily growth. The heart 
increases rapidly in size relative to the blood vessels, and there 
is a marked increase in blood pressure. There is also a rapid 
increase in lung and chest capacity, in strength of grip of 
hand, and in control of accessory muscles. The sexual organs 
are developing rapidly. While the brain is not perceptibly 
increasing in weight, there is a rapid structural change and 
accelerated development of association libers. It is the period 
of greatest tendency to nervous disorders, and there is an 
increased liability to disease. 

This is the time of the most rapid development of the 
heart and emotions. Love, pity, fear, anger, jealousy, emula- 
tiuu, ambition, have a new awakening. There is frequently 
great emotional instability. Anger and pugnacity increase ; 
sympathy increases. There is periodic laziness, awkwardness, 
self-consciousness, tendency to reverie, dreams of greatness, 
self-assertion. There is a tendency to affectation and manner- 
isms, to slang, to desire to show off, to freakishness and pranks. 

There comes now a new tendency to imitation and sug- 
gestion. There is a shifting of susceptibility to influence of 
companions to susceptibility to influence of adult ideals 
and example. There is a striking increase in susceptibility 
to religious influence ; also the greatest liability to incorri- 
gibility, misdemeanors, and crime. There is a desire to leave 
home, yet susceptibility to homesickness. There is a keen 
sense of humor, a tendency to practical joking, great sensi- 
tiveness to praise, censure, or ridicule. 

There is now an increased tendency to rudimentary organi- 
zations, gangs, and clubs, and great interest in competitive 



THE PERIODS OF CHILDHOOD 81 

and cooperative games ; also in the taking and giving of 
stumps. The circle of favorite games is narrowing, and sex 
differences become prominent. There is great admiration for 
physical prowess, hero worship, love of adventure, and love of 
hunting and camping. 

Reasoning is strengthening. There is on the whole less 
liability to errors in reasoning. The memory is increased and 
the imagination is very active. The general reading interest 




War 

Photograph by C. A. Putnam 

is at its height. A genuine historic interest appears ; also 
interest in drama. The collection interest gains in definite- 
ness and permanency. There is great interest in nature and the 
training of animals. There is an increase in the regard for 
money and in trading. The puzzle interest involves mainly 
language and arithmetical puzzles. There is an uicreased 
interest in music and in rhythm. 

The en^'ironment in this period, then, should furnish oppor- 
tunity for games and plays involving great physical activity 



82 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

and adapted to develop the large muscle areas, to continue 
the development of the finer motor adjustments, and to relate 
mdividual activity to a social group. These plays should 
develop the manly qualities, — courage, generosity, staying 
power, and social consciousness. The increased interest along 
the many lines mentioned above should be a means for sup- 
plying many varied activities tendmg to direct the attention 
and interests without rather than witliin, relieving the pecuhar 
and often morbid emotional tendencies of this time. The nar- 
rowmg circle and increased intensity of interest make this a 
favorable time for fixing permanent interests m some line, — 
in athletics, nature, science, literature, music, or art. The fol- 
lowing Course of Plays and Games is intended to suggest such 
activities and the peculiar emphasis to be laid upon each ; also 
to suggest many games involving the peculiar activity needed 
by the developing mental powers at this time. 



Pakt TI 

A SUGGESTIVE COURSE OF PLAYS 
AND GAMES 

PEEIOD ONE (Ages 0-3) 

"^ Essential characteristics. The essential characteristics of 
this period are the development of the senses, rapid brain 
growth, getting control of the fundamental movements of 
the body and its members, the development of speech, and 
imitation. 

Apparatus and toys. The apparatus and toys of special 
interest inchide eounnon objects, such as smooth stones, sticks, 
spools, keys, spoons, tin dishes ; bright objects suspended to 
attract sight, objects suspended above the cradle to induce 
reaching, a bell or some other bright object sewed to the stock- 
ing to induce pulling, paper suspended above the feet to induce 
kicking ; soft, hard, smooth, rough, light, heavy, warm, cold, 
objects ; a celluloid ball, rubber animals, boxes, nest of boxes, 
bottles, blocks, etc. ; harmonica, trumpet, whistle, bell ; flag ; 
rocking-horses, seat swing ; dolls ; cart, doll carriage ; toy fur- 
niture ; linen picture books ; paper and crayon ; slide, — a 
smooth board waxed and rubbed, having one end placed on 
a chair or box, on to which the child may cKmb and slide 
down the board ; outdoor sand pile, iron spoon, shovel, tin 
cans, pail, sand forms, cart ; indoor sand box. 

83 



84 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



First plays of infancy. These iiiclude free bodily move- 
ments (mihampered by clothing); handling of the body and 
common objects ; experimenting with the sense of touch, 
with temperature, taste, smell, hearing, sight ; mussing paper, 




Exploring 

rattling keys, pounding with a spoon ; rolling on the bed or 
on a blanket on the floor ; climbing off the bed or off chairs ; 
creeping ; climbing downstairs, upstairs, on chairs, and the 
like ; walking ; exploring room, house, yard ; imitation of 
movements and sounds. 

Later plays of infancy. These include continued experi- 
menting with the senses and motor apparatus; free motor 
plays, like running, climbing, swinging, rocking, pushing, 
dragging, drawing, and the like ; free play witli toys and 



PERIOD ONE 



85 



with common objects used as toys ; exploring ; simple con- 
structive play with blocks, digging in the sand, mud play; 
imitative plays, such as direct imitation of acts and words of 
adults ; doll play ; markmg ; listening to music and singing. 




A C'lTv Sand Pile 

attempts at singing ; Mother Goose plays ; countmg ; repeti- 
tion and rhythm. 

The games and mother plays adapted to this age include 
such as Peekaboo ; This Little Pig Went to Market ; Brow- 
bender ; Creep, Mouse ; Here is the Church ; Kicking ; Falling ; 
Tick-Tack ; Pat-a-Cake ; Wash the Lady's Dishes ; Piide a Cock- 
horse; Trot, Trot, to Boston, and other Mother Goose rhymes; 
Chase ; Hide and Whoop ; Dance and Sing ; Marching ; Ping-a- 
Ping, Posie ; and finger plays. 



PEEIOD TWO (Ages 4-6) 

Essential characteristics. The essential characteristics of 
this period are continued rapid brain growth and develop- 
ment of the senses ; accumulation of sense perceptions ; per- 
fecting the control of the fundamental movements and of the 
speech organs ; great physical activity, the interest centering 




An Old-Timk Plav 



in the activity rather than in the result ; imitation, particu- 
larly of adults and advdt occupations ; active imagination, 
dramatic and representative play ; interest in toys ; doll play; 
play which is individualistic rathej" than social ; curiosity and 
questioning ; guessing ; construction ; collecting and hoarding 
of trivial objects ; beginnings of graphic representation and 
musical interest ; story interest ; spontaneous counting. 

86 



PERIOD TWO 



87 



Apparatus and toys. The apparatus and toys of special 
interest include the following : outdoor sand pile, shovels, 
sand forms, tin cans, blocks, stones, and other miscellaneous 
materials, as boards, boxes, sticks, 
spools, dowels, twigs, etc. ; carts, 
reins, whips ; climbing tree or 
ladder ; slide (such as a smooth, 
waxed board, with climbing 
mount) ; single-pole swing ; see- 
saw ; parallel rails (2 by 4 joists, 
mounted a few inches from the 
ground, for balanced walking and 
running) ; elevated rail or fence ; 
jumping hole, filled with sawdust, 
straw, or other soft material ; doll 
house, improvised by children out 
of dry-goods box, or made by older 
children or carpenter ; dolls ; doll 
carriage, go-carts ; toy furniture, 
strong and durable as possible ; 
chairs, tables, beds, hammocks, 
bureaus, tubs, rub boards, flat- 
irons, brooms, stove, kitchen 
dishes, tea sets, etc. ; toy animals, 
toy circus ; harmonica, trumpet, 
drum, flag, toy sword ; balls, bean 
bags ; windmills ; engine, train of 
cars ; wheelbarrow, rake, hoe, watering pot ; indoor sand box ; 
building blocks ; scissors, paste ; sewing cards and sewing 
material ; 1)eads ; clay for modeling ; pencils and paper ; cray- 
ons or paints ; pictures and picture books. 




Photograph hy F. E. Bronson 



88 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

In this coimectioii shuuld be mentioned the use of school 
play rooms. The following account of such a room is suggestive. 

Vov cluldren of this period indoor play rooms are desirable at any 
season of the year, but essential in the winter niontlis. I have in 
mind a play room in a country village of perhaps a thousand people. 
This village is a suburb of one of the larger cities of Massachusetts. 
The people are uniformly in humble circumstances, the majority 




A I'l.Av-Hooii Gkolp 
Photograph by M. Barnes 

btiing of the mill operative class and foreign born. The one school 
of the village, enrolling about two hundred and fifty children, has a 
first-grade room, in which there are fifty-six or eight children, about 
half of whom, on the first day of school, had not enough command 
of English to understand the simple directions of the teacher. Some 
of these children were scarcely more than babies, and fell asleep in 
their seats by the dozen. Across the hallway from this room an un- 
used room has been converted into a playroom. The room contains 
two sand piles, a swing, a smooth board slide, a doll house, house- 
hold furniture, cart, doll carriage, dolls, blocks, balls, picture books, 



PERIOD TWO 



89 



sliced pictures, toy soldiers, toy animals, toy circus, and other things. 
For more than a year and a half the children have been turned, 
about sixteen at a time, into this room, by the single teacher in 
charge, the door closed, and the children left entirely to their own 
devices. Here they play happily and freely. The marvel of it in- 
creases ; for, after all these months, tl^e teacher has yet to find the 
first case of quarreling, noisy disorder, or abuse of toys or apparatus. 




A Play-Room Corner 
Photograph by M. Barnes 



We parents of three or four scrappy, well-brought-up childi-en, of 
ages not permitting a social ensemble in their household play, may 
have much to learn of the socializing power of a play room sup- 
plying the right plays and toys to a group of children of a uniform 
stage of development and with similar play ideals. Other teachers of 
this school have attempted, with poor success, to utilize the play room 
for older children without first adapting the environment to the age 
of the children. The expense of this play room has been less than 



90 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 




thirty dollars a year. It has made iti possible to care for the first-grade 
children without employing an assistant teacher, thereby saving the 

town several hundred dol- 
lars since it was opened. 

Free, active plays. 

These include such activ- 
ities as running, rolling, 
sliding, climbing, wrest- 
ling, pushing, pulling, 
lifting, hauling, drawing, 
jumping, digging, throw- 
ing, tossing, catching, 
etc., and experimenting 
with the l)ody and the 

Co.MH.VDES 

senses. 

Imitative and dramatic plays. These include such plays 
as dolls, house, store, conducUu', horse, bear, Indians, fire- 
men, blacksmith, school, doctor, circus, soldiers, and the like. 

Constructive plays. 
These include such activi- 
ties as playing in a sand 
pile, clay modeling, build- 
ing with blocks, sewing, 
improvising houses, trains, 
stone fences, dens, etc., 
with miscellaneous mate- 
rial ; cutting free-hand, cut- 
ting out pictures, pasting ; 
stringing beads; parquetry. 

Collecting and hoarding 

plays. These include the Feeding the Hungry 





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feE^L: 


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• *><*xSx^iil 



PERIOD TWO 



91 



collecting of colored paper, ribbons, buttons, pictures, and 
miscellaneous knickknacks ; picking flowers, gathering nuts, 
picking berries, collecting 
leaves, and the like. 

Nature plays. The 
nature interest finds ex- 
pression in field excur- 
sions ; in watcliing birds 
and other animals ; in ex- 
ploring ; in picnicking ; in 
camping with their elders. 
The planting of seeds, 
transplanting of flowers, 
watering and caring for 
flower beds, and the feeding of pets may be entered upon 
incidentally in tliis period, but the children are not yet 
ready for responsibility in the care of flowers or pets. 




8cI1()()L-Va1UJ (iAME.S 




(_)UTDO0K KiNDEKGARTEN GaMES 



Drawing plays. These include spontaneous drawings on 
the blackboard ; drawing with pencil on paper ; coloring pic- 
tures with crayons or paints ; tracing pictures on the black- 
board, on slates, or on paper. 



92 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



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FkEE Pl.VV in the KlNDEKGAKTEN 



Music plays. These have to do with singing and listening 
to music, with rh}'thniical niovenieuts, motion songs, finger 



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(•■^'" 5ir . '' "iMfl&jiife^r '^^*'<R" i-Jr^Sr 'I'^Sw^ i 



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Kindergarten Games on a Recreation Fiek 



plays. Among the finger plays should be mentioned All for 
Baby ; The Lambs ; The Hens and Chickens ; The Pigs ; The 



PERIOD TWO 93 

Mice ; The Squirrel ; The Sparrows ; The Caterpillar ; The 
Little Meu; The Little Plaut ; The Mill; Making Bread; 
Making Butter ; Mrs. Pussy's Dinner ; The Counting Lesson ; 
Santa Claus.^ 

Story interest. This is manifested in hearing and telling 
stories. 

Guess games and riddles. Among these should he men- 
tioned the very simple, original guess games of children and 
the Mother Goose riddles. 

Formal games. Formal games in this period are rarely 
entered upon except through the leadership of elders. Some 
of the games played hy children of this age are games of 
chasing and tag, Hide and Whoop, Hide and Seek, Drop the 
Handkerchief, Cat and ]\Iouse ; also some of the traditional 
singing games, many of which have been revised by kinder- 
garteners. For a description of these games see the follow- 
ing period. Some of the sense games described on pages 
130-132 may be utilized in this period. 

1 See Finger Plays, by Emilie Poulsson. 



PERIOD THREE (Ages 7-9) 

Essential characteristics. It should be noted first of all 
that this is a transition period. In general, it is a period of 
slow physical development, including a period of regression, 
with tendency to heart weakness and fatigue, due perhaps 




An Artificial Slide 



to increased demands upon the heart in excess of heart mus- 
cle, and to the disturl)ance of nutrition accompany mg loss of 
teeth preceding second dentition. There is a transition from 
susceptibility to child diseases to susceptibility to adult dis- 
eases. Now comes the close of the period of rapid brain growth 
(at about eight). There is increased liability to stuttering and 

94 



PERIOD THREE 



95 



mental dullness. There is a transition from interest in the con- 
trol of the body and in activity for its own sake to interest 
in the control of environment and in activity for the end's 
sake. It is a period of development of motor coordinations 
and sense judgments. The elements of skill and competition 
appear in the play. The games are individualistic rather than 
cooperative. There is a disinclination to try unless assured of 






Fire Company awaiting the Alarm 
Photograph by C. A. Putuam 

success, and a sensitiveness in failure. There is an approach- 
ing culmination of interest in traditional games, games of 
chase, and doll play. Interest is strong in collections, crude 
construction, and in natvn-e. 

Apparatus and toys. The apparatus and toys that should 
be provided are such as sand pile ; seesaw ; pole swing ; sus- 
pended iron rings ; climbing rope ; cHmbing tree ; climbing 
ladder ; tilting ladder ; board slide ; swinging rings ; trolley 



96 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 




Fire-En(iink Houses 
Photograph hy C. A. Putnam 



slide ; jumping pit, filled with 
sawdust, straw, or other soft 
material ; stilts ; garden, carts, 
wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, 
hoes ; balls, bean bags, ring- 
toss, tenpins; bows and 
arrows ; express carts ; jump 
ropes, reins, whips ; kites ; 
playhouse, made by older 
l)oys ; doll house, made by 
children or carpenter ; boxes, 
Ijoaids, and other miscellane- 
ous material; acpiarium, fish 
nets, insect nets ; pets ; drum, 
fife, flag, toy swords, wooden 
guns ; improvised fire engine, hose cart, etc. 

Free, active plays. The joy of mere physical activity of 
the previous period continues in this. one along certain lines, 
largely combined with the joy of mofion. The environment 
should provide opportun- 
ity for climbing, running, 
jumping, balancing, swing- 
ing, teetering, tumbling, 
wrestling, sliding, skating, 
swimming. Swimming 
should be included in the 
pastimes of both boys and 
girls as early as this period, 
but under proper over- 
sight. Where swimming 

pools are wanting the Playing Store 




PERIOD THREE 



97 



ponds, streams, or nearest seashore should be utilized. There 
is scarcely a town iu New England that has not sufficient 
natural advantages to make the teaching of swimming 




Fkee-Hand Cutting by a Boy of Seven 
Krmtness of Dr. William H. Burnham 

practicable to nearly all boys ami girls. Participation in 
skating, coasting, and other winter sports should be heartily 
encouraged. Where there are not natural skating and coast- 
ing places for the children artificial ones should be provided. 

Dramatic and imitative plays. These 
plays can be given no description here. 
They are infinite in variety and nundjer 
and fill a much larger place in the play 
life of children of this age than do the 
more formal games. Suggestion may be 
taken from a mention of some of these 
plays. They mclude such plays as fire- 
men, expressmen, conductors, soldiers, 
Indians, cowboys, store, school, house, 
doll play of infinite variety, traveling, calling, party ; in short, 
imitation of nearly every occupation or custom known to chil- 
dren. These plays are of very great importance educationally. 




98 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Not much should be attempted iu the way of direction, but 
through environment, and by means of an adequate supply of 
toys and apparatus of the kinds mentioned above, these plays 
may be suggested and made to work out their service for the 
children. The dramatic interest may be utilized in a some- 
what definite way in school work, as will be suggested later. 
Constructive plays. In his constructive play the child of 
this period is no longer satisfied with the mere activity of 




Basket Weaving 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

constructing, as was largely the case in the previous period; 
but he desires to make things for the sake of having them 
and using them. However, he is not yet interested in the 
details of workmanship as he will be in the next period. 
Crude work may be expected, but the attempt is of great 
value. The objects made should be, for the most part, things 
that will be used, particularly toys. 

The constructive play of this period will be manifested in 
large, crude work, as in the building of huts, wigwams, tents, 



PERIOD THREE 



99 



playhouses, tree platforms, stone ovens, etc., involving build- 
ing with crude material rather than making over material ; 
in sand-pile and sand-bank play, the digging of caves, build- 
ing of roads, stone walls, dams, waterways, water wheels, and 
rafts ; in simple bench work and whittling, as in making 
crude toys, kites, carts, sleds, spool machinery, bows, arrows, 
traps, snares, quill popguns, suckers, willow whistles, and the 
like ; in making paper dolls and dresses, free-hand cutting, 




Cat and Mouse 

picture cutting, pasting ; in paper and cardboard construc- 
tion, as in making paper boxes, doll houses, toy furniture, wind- 
mills, darts, fans, etc. Sucli occupations as the following may 
be included : rattan and raffia weaving ; knitting ; rug weav- 
ing ; knotting and looping cord, as in making reins, bags, 
chains, belts, baskets, etc. ; sewing, as of doll clothing, marble 
bags, bean bags ; doll millinery ; crocheting ; play cooking. 

Games of chasing, hunting, throwing, shooting. These 
games are of special interest at this period, and are adapted 
to the peculiar physical needs at this time. They introduce 
competition, skill, and such exploitation of powers as tends to 



l. Of C, 



100 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

aid the development of finer motor adjustments and of the 
coordination of muscular action with sense judgments wliich 
begin to appear at this time. The following are represent- 
ative games of this class : 

Cat and Mouse. The mouse is inside, the cat outside the 
circle. Children circle round, hindering, with lowered arms, 
the cat from getting in or out, but with raised arms allowing 
the mouse to pass freely out or in. 

Hide and Seek, or I Spy. Children count out to see who 
will be " it." The one who is "it " blinds at some goal until 
he has counted one hundred, or some number agreed upon. 
Meantime the rest run and hide. When the blinder discov- 
ers one in hiding, he runs and touches his goal, saying, 

" I spy ." If the one who was hiding touches the goal 

first, he is safe. The hiders run in wdienever they think they 
can do so safely. When all are in, the first one caught must 
be " it." The following are common counting-out rhymes. 



Intery, mintery, cutery, corn, 
Apple seed, briar thorn, 
Wire, briar, limber lock, 
Three geese in a flock ; 
One flew east, one flew west, 
One flew over the cuckoo's nest, 
0-u-t, out ! 



Eeny, meeny, mona, my, 
Barcelona, bona, stry, 
Kay bell, broken well, 
We, wo, wack. 



Puss in the Corner. Each puss chooses a corner or goal, 
except the one who is " it." Those who have corners try to 
change places. If the one who is " it " succeeds in getting 
one of the corners before the exchange is completed, the 
one who is left without a corner must be " it." 

Witch in the Jar. The w^tch has jars marked out on the 
ground. When any one ventures near she gives chase and 



PERIOD THREE 101 

when she catches any one she puts him in the jar to stay 
until aU are caught. 

Tommy Tiddler^'s Ground. A space is marked otf as 
Tommy Tiddler's ground. One is counted out as Tommy 
Tiddler. The others run into Tommy's territory, shouting, 
" I am on Tommy Tiddler's ground, stealing gold and sil- 
ver." If any one is tagged while in Tommy's territory, he 
becomes Tommy Tiddler. This is also called Dixie's Land 
and King's Land. 

Come with Me. Children stand in a circle. One runs 
around the circle and touclies some one on the back, saymg, 
" Come with me ! " The two run in opposite directions. 
Upon meeting they take hold of hands, swing once around, 
and then race for the vacant place. 

"^ Drop the Haiidl'er chief. Children stand in a circle. One 
runs round with handkerchief in hand, dropping it at some 
one's heels. The one at whose feet it is dropped must pick 
it up and give chase, attempting to catch the runner before 
he can get to the vacant place in the ring. In the school- 
room the handkerchief may be dropped upon the desk. 

Have you seen my Sheep f In this game the player out- 
side the circle touches some one on the back and says, " Have 
you seen my sheep ? " to which the other replies, " How was 
he dressed ? " The first then replies by describing the dress 
of some player, who, when he recognizes himself, must run 
around the circle and try to regain his place without being 
tagged, as in Drop the Handkerchief. 

Gypsy. Gypsy charges her daughters to stay at home and 
be good. "NMiile she is away the daughters run and hide. The 
gypsy must find them aU. The first one found and caught 
must be gypsy. 



102 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



House Hiring. Children stand in a circle, the house hirer 
inside. Wliile he is seeking for a house two get ready, and 
when he is not looking they exchange places. If any one is 
caught changmg his place, he must be house hirer. Some- 
times the children are numbered, and when the one who is 
" it " calls out two numbers, tlie children bearing those num- 
bers must change places without being caught. 

The Boiler Burst. A circle is formed about one who tells 
some story in which finally occur the words, " the boiler 
burst." At these words all rush for some given line or goal. 
The last one reaching it must be the next story-teller. 

Hawh and Chickens. The hawk circles round the feed- 
ing ground and suddenly swoops down upon the chickens. 

If any one is caught on 
the feeding ground, that 
one must be the hawk. 

Sliephenless and Wolf. 
The shepherdess stands 
with all her sheep in line 
behind her, each with 
arms around the waist 
of the child ahead of her. 
The wolf stands in front, 
facing the shepherdess. 
He jumps about to catch 
a sheep, but the shep- 
herdess endeavors to head him off, holding out hands and 
turning to face him, while the sheep swing in behind her. 
This is a good, lively game for limited space. 

Tag. The following are some common forms of tag for this 
period : Tag, in which there is no goal or formality, the one 




Tag 



PERIOD THREE 103 

tagged becoming "it" ; Squat Tag, iu which the children stand 
in a circle, or without any particular restriction, and in which 
no one may be tagged while squatting ; Wood Tag, or Stone 
Tag, in which a player may not be tagged while touching 
wood or stone ; Goal Tag, in which certain goals are chosen 
where one may not be tagged ; Whip Tag, in which a knotted 
handkerchief, strap, or switch may be used in tagging. 

Stealing Sticks. The chaser has a territory agreed upon in 
wdiich a certain number of sticks are scattered about. The 




Hill Dill 

object is to steal all his sticks before he catches any one, in 
which case he must be catcher again. If any one is caught, 
that one must be catcher. 

Lame Goose. This is similar to Tommy Tiddler's Ground, 
only the chaser must hop after three steps are taken, instead 
of running, and whoever is tagged becomes a lame goose until 
all are caught. If a goose puts both feet on the ground when 
outside his den, he may be driven to his den by all the 
other players. The first one caught is " it." 

Hill Dill {Peel Away, or Pom Pom, Pull Away). The ground 
is marked off liy two lines into three sections, the middle one 
being from one hundred to three hundred feet wide. The 



104 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

catcher stands in one outer section, the rest in the other. 
The chaser calls, " Hill, dill, come over the hill, or I'll come 
over after you." He then tries to tag the players as they run 
across the middle section. Whoever is tagged must be a tagger 
also. The call and the chase continue until all are caught. 
The first one tagged becomes " it " in the new game. This game 
is much played in the next period also, and great skill in dodg- 
ing and escaping a multitude of pursuers is often developed, 
a skill greatly prized in back-of-the-line men in football. 

Dare Base. In this game a line is drawn midway between 
the goals. A catcher stands at each end of this line. The 
other players run back and forth between the goals; they 
may not be tagged when in the goals or on the base Une, 
but they may not pass back to the goal from which they 
started until they have gained the opposite goal. Those who 
are caught are put out of the game, or they may be made 
catchers, as in Hill Dill. 

Bound Hands. This is similar to Hill Dill, except that as 
soon as a runner is tagged he joins hands with the tagger 
and they give chase together, each new one tagged joining 
the line, until all are caught. 

Run, Sheep, Bun. Sides are chosen. One side remains by 
the goal while the other goes away and hides. The captain of 
the hiding side returns and marks on the ground the zigzag 
course which his sheep took in going to their hidmg places. 
As the hunting party searches, the captain of the side in 
hiding makes known to his sheep the whereabouts of the 
himters by means of secret cries previously agreed upon. At 
the opportvine moment he cries, " Eun, sheep, run," at which 
all the sheep break for the goal. If the hunters discover the 
sheep before they run and can get a man to the goal first, or 



PERIOD THREE 105 

if they succeed in getting a man to the goal before any of 
the sheep get there after the cry, " Run, sheep, run," is given, 
the hunters become the sheep, otherwise, the same sheep go 
out again. 

Fast Runners. This game is also called Last Pair, Pass. 
The players are arranged in pairs, all facing the same way. 
One is at the head, back to the rest. He calls out some sig- 
nal, at which the last couple in the line run towards the 
front on opposite sides of the line and try to join hands 
beyond the catcher without being tagged. If one is tagged, 
he becomes catcher, the other two standing as the first pair 
in the line. If the runners succeed in joining hands without 
being tagged, the catcher is obliged to try again. 

Follow the Leader. One is chosen leader whom all the 
rest must follow in line, doing all that the leader does. An 
ingenious and daring leader can make this a very interesting 
and valuable game. 

Five Geese in a Flocl\ Geese sit in a row. A market woman 
comes along and repeats the counting-out rhyme, " Intery, 
mintery, cutery, corn," etc. At the last syllable the geese 
jump up and run, the market woman giving chase. The 
one caught must be market woman. 

Black Man. One is counted out as Black Man. The rest 
come round, crying, " Who is afraid of the Black Man ? " 
Suddenly the Black Man gives chase. Wlien one is caught 
he becomes Black Man. Sometimes the one caught joins 
hands with the first Black Man and they give chase together, 
the next one caught joining with them, and so on until all 
are caught. In this case the runners usually are made to 
cross a certain definite territory. It is then similar to the 
game of Bound Hands. 



106 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Huntsman. One is chosen as huntsman and the others 
represent parts of the hunter's equipment. The desks are 
chalked so as to leave one seat less than the number of chil- 
dren. The huntsman marches about the room, through the 
aisles, calling for each part of his equipment. As he names 
each part, the child representing it takes fast hold of the one 



t'Wl'-^^l/^ 


W^K. 











Hoop Race 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

ahead of him in the line, the hunter being the head. At the 
word, " Bang," all rush for a seat. The one left out, pa};s a forfeit. 

Going to Jerusalem. The desks are chalked so as to leave 
one less than the number of children. The children march 
about the room to music or singing in unison. As the signal 
is given, or the music stops, all rush for their seats. The one 
left without a seat may be made to pay a forfeit. 

Rolling Hooj). Any hoop of convenient size may be used. 
The hoop is driven by tapping it repeatedly with a stick, the 



PERIOD THREE 107 

child running alongside and guiding it as necessary. Con- 
siderable skill may be developed. 

Hoop Race. Eacers start at a given signal, driving their 
hoops to a given goal. 

E'ticoimters. Sides are chosen. The players start from 
opposite sides of the playground, rolling their hoops at the 
opposing side and endeavoring to tip over their opponents' 
hoops by driving their own over them. When a hoop is down 
for any reason the player is out. 

Posting, or Relay Race. The course is marked out and 
drivers stationed at certain intervals. The driver is changed 
at each station. 

Turnpikes. Half are pike keepers and half roll the hoops. 
Turnpikes are made of two stones or bricks a few inches 
apart, placed at regular intervals around a large circle or 
along the road. The rollers must roll their hoops between 
the stones without touching them. Whoever misses, must 
change places with the pike keeper. 

Catch Ball. Use a soft ball or bean bag. Children stand in 
rows or in a circle. The leader tosses the ball to each in turn, 
or he tosses it in the air and calls the name or number of 
some one to catch it. The game may be greatly varied. 

Circle Ball. A ball or bean bag is passed quickly around 
a circle by handing, passing over the head, or by tossing. 
Vary. See variation of Hunt the Slipper, page 120. 

Balloon Ball. Use a large, light ball. Children play singly, 
in pairs, in groups, in rows, or in a circle. Alternate rolling, 
tossing, throwing, kicking, with right hand, left hand, both 
hands, right foot, left foot. Also keep the ball in the air by 
batting upward with the hand until a miss is made, or keep 
it bouncing by batting it downward against the floor. Vary. 



108 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

School Ball. Use a soft ball. Count out for turns. No. 1 
retains the ball as long as he can catch it in accord with the 
rules. Wlien he misses he must step five paces away and 
let No. 2 throw the ball at his back. If No. 2 misses, he 
loses his turn and gives the ball to No. 3, who proceeds 
as No. 1. (1) Throw up with one hand, catch with both ; 
(2) throw with both, catch with both ; (3) throw with both, 
catch with one ; (4) throw with one, catch with the other ; 
(5) throw to the ground and catch on the bounce, in the 
different ways ; (7) bat upward before catching ; (8) throw 
upward, and before catching [a) clap hands, (h) bow once, (c) 
kneel once, (d) jump in the air, (e) jump forward, (/) jump 
backward, {g) kneel to the right, (h) kneel to the left. The 
game may be greatly varied. Use originality. 

Pots. In this game the ball is thrown against a wall and 
caught in the different ways. 

Days of the Week. Each child takes the name of some day. 
One throws the ball against the wall and calls out, "Monday!" 
or some other day. The one representing the day catches the 
ball. If he misses, the others must scamper away before he 
has time to throw the ball and hit one of them. Whoever 
misses, or is hit, loses a point. 

One Old Cat. This is a game of ball with one base and 
one batsman, a pitcher, a catcher, and the rest fielders. To 
start a game, one cries, " One old cat, my first bat." The 
others cry, "Pitcher," "Catcher," "First fielder," "Second 
fielder," and so on, until all have a place. The batsman is out 
if a fly is caught, if a foul is caught on the fly or on the first 
bounce, or if a third strike is caught. A muffed third strike 
gives the batsman three strikes more. Wlien the batsman is 
out each player moves up, that is, catcher becomes batsman. 



PERIOD THREE 



109 



pitcher becomes catcher, first fielder becomes pitcher, and 
so on. The batsman takes the last place in the field. 

Two Old Cat. In this game are two bases and two base- 
men. A batsman may be put out in running bases accord- 
ing to the usual rule in baseball. 

Round Ball. In this game there are the usual number of 
bases and basemen. There may be three or more batters, as 
desired. In " moving up " after a man is put out, shortstop 
ranks next to pitcher, first baseman next to shortstop, and 
so on. When a soft ball is used " spottings," or throwing ball 
at a base runner, is some- 
times allowed. In other 
particulars the usual 
rules govern. 

Fun go. A batter 
knocks flies or ground- 
ers to the other players. 
Whoever catches a fly or 
stops three grounders becomes batter. Tliis game is usually 
started by some one's crying, " Fungo, first hand in." 

Baseball. Boys of this period often attempt the game of 
baseball, usually with extemporized sides, sometimes with boy- 
ishly organized nines. These attempts need be neither encour- 
aged nor discouraged. Let them take care of themselves. 

Football. Kicking and passing football. A game of Rush 
is often played by boys of this period. They may use a foot- 
ball, or the football may be represented, as it most commonly 
is, by a cap, a stick, or anything conveniently at hand. 
Three, four, five, any number of boys may play the game. 
What was said of baseball just above may be said here 
of football. 






RtTSH 



no 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Faba Gala, or Bean-Bag Game. Place a wastebasket at 
a suitable distance. Three bags are tossed or thrown, one 
after the other, at the basket. The one who gets the largest 
number of bags into the wastebasket in a given number of 
trials, wins. The . bags may be tossed at a chair or at three 
concentric rings marked on the ground or floor ; or holes of 




Faba Gaba 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

different sizes may be sawed in a board and the bags tossed 
through the holes, more points being scored by tossing 
through a smaller hole than through a larger one. Some- 
times three square boxes are fastened together, the smallest 
within the next larger and that within the largest, a margin 
between the boxes being left according to size of bags used. 
Throwing into the largest box counts one, into the middle 



PERIOD THREE 



111 



box two, and into the smallest box three. The bags ought 
to weigh not less than half a pound. 

Ringtoss. Rings can easily be made of rattan or rope. 
They should be seven m number, although three or four will 
do, the smallest about eight inches in diameter and the next 
in size just large enough to let the smallest pass through it, 
and so on. The stake may be made by drivmg a dowel or 
other stick tightly into a hole bored in the middle of a board 
sixteen or eighteen inches square. The rings should be tossed 
m order of size, beginning with the largest. Einging the stake 
with the largest counts 
one, with the second two, 
and so on. Play individ- 
ually or by sides. 

Tenpins. Anything 
from clothespins to small 
Indian clubs may be 
used as pins. When 
played indoors, hard rub- 
ber balls may be used. 
The pins are set up in the form of an equilateral triangle, 
according to the usual custom, and bowled at from any suit- 
able distance. Score should be kept according to the usual 
method in bowling. Play with or without sides. 

Archery. Boys of this age can make their own crude 
bows and arrows. 

Gaines of experimentation. These games include (1) 
miscellaneous active games, involving mainly trial of bodily 
strength, quickness, and skill ; (2) miscellaneous intellectual 
games, involving mainly trial of mental powers, attention, 
observation, imagmation, and memory, and occasionally of 




RiNGTOSS 



112 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



self-control. They are generally played under the spur of emu- 
lation. Some of the best of the active games are the following. 
Jump Rope. This famihar sport for girls has many varia- 
tions. It may be made a most valuable form of exercise, but 
excessive rope jumping should be guarded against in the case 
of children from about seven to about nine years of age, on 
account of the danger of heart weakness. Many excellent 




Tenpins on the School-Yaru Driveway 



exercises for individual or group play may be devised by the 
teacher, but the children should be encouraged to originate 
exercises for themselves. 

Cushion Dance. A circle is formed about a cushion or other 
object. All take hold of hands and each tries to pull another 
against the cushion. Wlioever touches the cushion is out. 

Sail the Ship. Two, or four, two by two, take hold of 
hands and swing swiftly round on the toes. The one who 
loses hold or falls, is out. 



PERIOD THREE 



113 



Charlie Over the Water. The children form a drcle, one 
child being in the center. The children circle about, singing, 
" Charlie over the water, Charlie over the sea, Charlie catch 
a blackbird, can't catch me." At the last word all stoop, but 
if one is tagged before stooping he must change places 
with Charlie. 

Wind up the Faggot. The children form a line with a 
large child at the head. Holding hands, the players wind 
slowly about the head child as a pivot, singing, " Wind up the 
bush faggot, and wind it up tight ; wind it all day and wind 
it all night," until all are wound up tight. Then all sing, 
" Stir up the dumplings, the pot boils over," singing faster and 
faster and jumping up and down, keep- 
ing time, until aU are in a general mix-up. 

Hop Scotch. This 
game is greatly 
varied. A diagram 
similar to one of 
those given here is 
scratched on the 
ground or marked 
on the floor or pave- 
ment. A mark is 
made at a suitable 
distance from the 
figure. Standing at tliis mark, the first player tosses a stone 
into space No. 1. He must then step into this space accord- 
ing to the prescribed method, and, while standing on one 
foot, kick the stone out towards the mark from which it 
was tossed. If successful, he steps back and tries in a similar 
way for space No. 2, and so on through all the spaces, always 




114 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



stepping back in reverse order. If he misses, the next player 
tries. When a player's turn comes again he begins where he 
left off in the previous trial. The one who makes all the 
divisions first wins. 

Jackstones. This familiar game is played with five pebbles 
or bits of iron called jackstones. It consists in tossing and 
catchmg the stones in various ways. All are tossed upward 
and caught on back of hand. One is thrown up while the 
other four are scattered on the ground, the first being caught 

as it descends. This, 
called the Jack, is 
tlu'own in the air and 
caught, one stone being 
picked up between each 
toss and catch, until all 
four are in the hand ; so 
with two, with three, 
with four. Similaiiy the 
stones are laid down. 
They are laid in line and 
the finger traces in and out among them while the Jack is 
in the air. Some other tricks are called setting the table, peas 
in the pod, putting horses in the stable, chimney, cradle, cart. 
Mu7nble the Peg or Knife. This is played with a pocket- 
knife. The game consists in throwing the knife in various 
ways so that the blade will stick into the ground, as tossing 
the knife from the palm, from the back of the hand, from 
closed fingers ; by holding the tip of the blade, at the same 
time touching the handle to chin, to lips, to nose, to forehead ; 
closing arms, one hand holdmg the lobe of the ear, throwing 
over the head, skipping, etc. The player first getting success- 
fully through the series wins. The last one through pays 




Jackstones 



PERIOD THREE 



115 



a forfeit, which usually has been the pulling of a peg out of 
the ground by the teeth, the peg being driven into the ground 
by a certain number of taps of the knife, the numljer having 
been previously agreed upon. 

Marbles. This ancient and perennial game has many varia- 
tions. Some forms require considerable skill, but the game as 
commonly played in tliis generation has unfortunately greatly 
degenerated. 

Hiimvpty Dum'pty. Girls sit and gather their skirts about 
crossed feet, repeating some rhyme, as " G is sick and 




An Old-Fashioxei) Game of Marbles 



like to die ; all she needs is a huckleberry pie." At the last 
word all go over backward, rocking back and forth four times 
without letting go skirts or using feet. 

Honey Pots. One child is a honey merchant and one is a 
purchaser. The rest are honey pots and squat with hands 
clasped vmder the knees. The merchant and the pvirchaser 
take each pot by the arms and swing it. If the honey pot 
breaks its hold, the honey is poor. 



116 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Hopping Dance. The players clasp hauds under the knees 
and follow the leader or dance to music. 

Feather Game. All stand in a circle and keep a feather or 
milkweed seed floating in the air by blowing upward. This 
is sometimes played with sides, each side trying to keep the 
seed from falling in its territory. 

Egg Polo. Two goals are marked out on a smooth table 
and sides are chosen. An eggshell from which the yolk has 
been blown is placed in the center of the table. At the signal 
each side tries to blow the shell through the opponent's goal. 




Meal Time 
Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 

Bird Catcher. The children sit in a circle, one child stand- 
ins in the middle. Each takes the name of some bird. The 
teacher or leader tells or reads a story, bringing in the names 



PERIOD THREE 117 

of the birds. At the mention of his name each one must 
raise his hands and bring them down quickly. At mention 
of the owl all place hands behind the back, holding them 
there until another bird is mentioned. The catcher endeavors 




I'ETS 

Photograph by S. Weaver 

to catch a hand whenever one is moved. When a player does 
the wrong thing, or has one of his hands caught, he must 
change places with the one in the center or pay a forfeit. 

Fisherman. The fisherman ties a string to a stick and 
makes a slip loop at the other end. The loop is placed in the 
center of the table. At the words " Your fish ! " each must 
put his finger within the loop. At the words " My fish ! " the 
fingers must be quickly withdrawn, or the fisherman, by a 
sudden jerk, will snare them. When a player is caught he 
becomes fisherman. 



118 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Bookbinder. The players stand in a circle with arms 
extended in front, a book resting on the back of the hands. 
A player in the center attempts, by feints and quickness, to 
raise the book and strike the hands before they are withdrawn. 
Hands cannot be withdrawn until the book is lifted. The 
game may be played without the books, the hands being 
stretched out. Wlien the one m the center attempts to hit 
the hands, the players may bend the wrists or move the hands 
sidewise, but may not withdraw them. Whoever is hit must 
change places with tlie one in the center. 

Pantomime School. A good leader is chosen, who places 
the rest in a row and takes his stand in front, doing " stunts," 
which the rest must attempt to do, such as the following: 
hold the hands outstretched and move the index fingers 
sidewise back and forth without moving the other three ; 
open the lingers between the middle and ring lingers, the 
others not being separated ; move the little fingers sidewise 
without movmg the others ; rotate the hands, one in one 
direction, the other in the other ; pat the head with one 
hand and rub the chest with the other; twirl the thumbs, 
( )ne in one direction the other in the opposite direction ; place 
the hands on the Mps and touch the elbows behind the back ; 
wiggle the ears ; move the tip of the nose like a sheep. 
When a player misses he must move down a place towards 
the foot of the line. The one remaining at the foot when the 
game is over may be made to pay a forfeit. 

Cat's Cradle. This familiar play has many forms which 
cannot well be described here. An important feature is the 
invention of new figures or tricks by the children. The author 
lias noted many such figures invented by boys. The following 
cut illustrates some of the figures found amontj the Indians. 




String Figures ^ 

1, two boys carrying spears ; 2, two women fighting with sticks ; 3, four 
boys walking in a row and holding each other's hands ; 4, two men 
walking down a valley; 5, man climbing a tree; 6, kangaroo; 7 and 
8, a pouch ; 9, a spear 

1 From String Figures, or Cats' Cradle in Many Lands, by Caroline Furness 
Jayne. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



120 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Intcry Mintcry. All place the foietinger on the leader's 
knee. The leader repeats a counting-out rhyme, touching 
a finger at each syllable. The finger upon which the last 
syllable falls must be instantly withdrawn or it will receive 
a rap. 

Queen Dido is Dead. The players stand in a circle or row. 
One starts the game by saying to her right-hand neighbor, 
" Queen Dido is dead." The neighbor inquires, " How did 
she die ? " The first answers, " She died doing so." and begins 
shaking her right hand, which she continues to shake all 
through the game. The one on her right now addresses her 
neighbor m the same manner, and so the game goes on until 
all in the line are shaking right hands. The one who started 
the game, wliile continuing to shake her right hand, takes 
up the conversation again, choosing a new movement, as shak- 
ing the left hand. This motion is passed on in similar manner 
along the line, a new movement being added at each circuit, 
until all are tired with shaking hands, stamping feet, nodding 
heads, or laughing. If preferred, a new motion may be chosen 
by each player as it comes her turn. 

Hunt the Slipper. The players stand or sit in a circle. 
Some object (wdiich formerly was usually a slipper) not too 
large is passed quickly and as slyly as possible around the 
circle. One player, in the center, tries to catch sight of it in 
some one's possession. If he can do so and quickly name the 
player who has it, that player must change places with him. 
The game may be modified by using a ball. The ball is tossed 
about the circle, the one in the center trying to catch it. If 
successful, the one who threw it changes places with him; 
or if he can touch it while it is in any one's possession, that- 
one must change places with him. 





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Taming a Partridge 
Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 



121 



122 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Hunt the Ring. In this game the object sought is a ring 
strung on a string, wliich the children hold in their hands as 
they stand in a circle. The ring is slyly slipped along from 
hand to hand. When the ring is discovered in a player's pos- 
session, he must change places with the one in the center. 

Paddy from Home. This is like the above game, only each 
player in the circle represents a station on some chosen line 
of railroad. Paddy is in the center. All sing : 

Paddy from home has never been, 
A railway train he 's never seen. 
He longs to see the great machine 
And travel along the railvi^ay. 

When Paddy sees tlie ring lie must call correctly the name 
of the station where it is. If correct, the child representing 
that station must become Paddy. 

Blind Man's Buff. A circle is formed with a l)lindfolded 
child in the center. The players forming the circle move 
steadily around the one blmdfolded until he gives a signal 
to stop. He then points a wand or finger at some part of the 
circle. The player who liappens to be pointed at takes his 
place within the circle, and the blindfolded player tries to 
catch liim. If successful, he must guess whom he has caught. 
If the guess is correct, the one caught becomes the blind 
man ; otherwise he takes his place again in the ring and the 
game proceeds as before. 

French Blind Mans Buff. In this game the child pointed 
at must answer some question. The blind man must guess 
who answers. 

Ruth and Jacob. A girl is chosen to be Ruth, or a boy to 
be Jacob. The one chosen is blindfolded, turned around sev- 
eral times, and left in the center of the circle. If a girl is 



PERIOD THREE 123 

chosen, she must then step forward and touch some boy, who 
takes his place in the circle. Euth then calls, " Wliere art 
thou, Jacob ? " and Jacob answers, " Here." As often as Euth 
calls, Jacob must answer. Guided by his voice, Euth gives 




Girl and Partridge — Friendship not Fully Established 
Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 

chase. When Jacob is caught, Euth must identify him. If 
she fails, she must try another boy ; if she succeeds, Jacob 
must be blindfolded and choose some girl. 

Still Pond, No More Moving. In tliis game one child is blind- 
folded and placed in the center of the playground while the 



124 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

others scatter about. After a short time the one blindfolded 
cries, " Still pond, no more moving." All must then stand still, 
or move not more than a certain number of steps, say ten or 
twenty, according to the size of the playground, in the endeavor 
to escape the one who is blindfolded. When the one blind- 
folded succeeds in catching a player, he must guess who it is 
or let him go. If he guesses right the one caught must be 
" it." There are many variations of these blindfolding games, 
some of which may be easily adapted to the schoolroom. 

Among the games involving mainly trial of the mental 
powers the following should be described. 

Birds Fly. The leader cries, " fly ! " naming any bird 

or animal, and at the same time holding up his hands. The 
others hold up their hands only in case a flying bird is 
mentioned. Whoever misses, is out. 

Hold Fast and Let Go. Four children hold the corners of 
a handkerchief. A fifth cries, " Hold fast," or " Let go." In 
each case the opposite must be done. Wlioever does the 
wrong thing must change places with the fifth. 

Simon says, " Thumbs Up." One is chosen as Simon. He 
holds his fists clenched, with thumbs pointing upward, and 
cries in quick succession, " Simon says, ' Thumbs up,' " " Simon 
says 'Thumbs down,' " " Simon says, ' Thumbs wiggle waggle,'" i 
suiting the action to the word. The rest must do just what / 
Simon says, but if the word " Simon " is omitted by the 
leader, the players must keep the hands perfectly still. Who- 
ever does the wrong thing must pay a forfeit. 

Contrary Children. A novel and interesting game for 
occasional playing is that of Contrary Children. The chil- 
dren stand in line or, better, in a circle, with " it " inside. 
The child in the center gives commands, such as, " Turn to 



PERIOD THREE 



125 



the right," or " Put your right hand out," while the children 
do tlie opposite, as turn to the left or put the right hand in. 
When one is detected in doing as bidden he has to be " it." 

Guess. One gives the first letter of some object in the 
room and the others guess the object. The one that guesses 
right, names another object, and so on. No object may be 
mentioned the second time. Sides may be chosen, the right 




Taming a Squirrel 
Photograph by S. Weaver 

to guess passing from one side to the other. The side guess- 
ing successfully may choose a player from the other side. The 
side having the most players at the close of the game wins. 

Genteel Lady. One says to her neighbor, " Good morning, 
genteel lady, always genteel ; I, a genteel lady, always gen- 
teel, come from that genteel lady (pointing), always genteel, 
to tell you that she has a bird" (or anything one likes). 
The one addressed repeats exactly and adds something else 



126 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

aliout the bird, and so on. The player who omits a word, or 
puts m an extra one, is out. 

Beast, Bird, or Fish. The children sit in a circle. One throws 
a knotted handkercliief at another, exclaiming, " Beast ! " 
" Bird ! " or " Fish ! " and then counts ten. Before ten is 
counted the other must name a beast or bird or fish, being 
sure to mention one of the right class and not to repeat 
what has been before mentioned. 

The Good Little Man. One says, " I sell you the house of 
my good little man." The next, " I sell you the door of the 
house of my good little man." The next, " I sell you the lock 
of the door, etc.," and so on at pleasure. 

These games may be adapted to memory and drill work in 
school to good advantage. For example. The Good Little 
Man may be transformed into something like this : " I will 
sell you wool when you come to the city of Boston." " I will 
sell you leather and wool when you come to the city of 
Boston." " I will sell you shoes and hides and leather and 
wool when you come to the city of Boston." " I will sell you 
boots and shoes and hides and leather and wool when you 
come to the city of Boston." " I will sell you cloth and boots 
and shoes and hides and leather and wool when you come 
to the city of Boston." And this may be continued with 
the addition of jewelry, clocks, cutlery, etc., until it is time 
for some one to say, "And that is the most that I will sell 
you when you come to the city of Boston." 

Or in the game of Beast, Bird, or Fish one may call for the 
name of a mountam, river, or city ; for a verb, adjective, or noun ; 
for the name of an inventor, discoverer, or poet. Sides may be 
chosen. For such purposes, however, the games may be found 
better adapted for the next period, — the golden period of drill. 



PERIOD THREE 127 

Railroad Game. Each child takes the name of somethmg 
associated with a raih-oad. One relates a story. At the men- 
tion of rails, " Eails " must rise and extend his arms m front. 
At the mention of newsboy, " Newsboy " must call out his 
papers, and so on through the list of names chosen. Strict 
attention must be paid, and if one forgets Ms part, or hesi- 
tates when his name is called, he is put out of the game or 
made to pay a forfeit. 

Trades. Sides are chosen. One side chooses some trade to 
represent and imitates the different motions belonging to the 
trade. If the other side guesses correctly, it chooses the next 
trade to be represented. The game may cover a wide field of 
dramatic representation. 

Crambo. In this game a player thinks of some word and 
says, " I think of some word that rhymes with ." Sup- 
pose the word thought of was "book." The player might say, 
" I am thinking of a word that rhymes with ' look.'" Another 
player then asks, for example, " Is it sometMng to hang a 
coat on ? " The first player answers, " No, it is not a hook." 
This is continued until the word is correctly guessed. This 
may apply to names in geography, history, and the like. It 
may be played with sides. In Acting Crambo the guesses are 
acted out. 

Schoolmaster. The children stand in a line. The school- 
master asks the name of a bird, animal, place, noted person, 
or whatever he likes, beginning with a certain letter. After 
ten is counted, the next child may answer and take the place 
above, if the one asked has not already answered. Repetition 
is not to be allow^ed. 

Hide in Sight. An object agreed upon is so hidden in the 
room that it is not entirely concealed if one looks sharply 



128 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



from all points of view. The children file about the room in 
line. When a child sees the object he makes no sign notice- 
able to the rest until he gets to the aisle leading to his desk, 
when he quietly takes his seat. When all are seated the 




The Center of Interest 
Photograph hy C. S. Cobb 

object may be concealed again. If preferred, the children 
may pass about the room without formality, the first one to 
discover the object being allowed to hide it again at once. 

Magical Music. This game is similar to Hide in Sight. 
The object is completely hidden and some one plays the piano, 



PERIOD THREE 129 

loudly when the children approach the object, softly when 
they are far from it. 

Observation. A number of objects are placed upon a table 
or in the teacher's lap and covered with an apron. The cliil- 
dren tile by, the teacher disclosing the objects. Those who 
can, tell exactly the number of objects or name them. A 
number of marks may be made upon the blackboard and con- 
cealed from sight. When all are ready the marks are disclosed 
for an instant. The exact number is to be told. These games 
are easily adapted to number work, spelling, and memoriz- 
ing, the period of observation being adapted to the occasion. 
For example, three minutes may be allowed for learning a 
spelling lesson from the board ; as many seconds to do a 
sum in addition as there are figures written ; three minutes 
for learning a rule, and the like. The following quotation 
from Scripture's Thinking, Feeling, Doing, is suggestive : 

Innumerable exercises in quick and accurate observation can be 
used in direct assistance to the regular work of the schoolroom. The 
spelling of words can be learned by quick glances ; the outline and 
parts of a country can be taught in greater and greater detail by 
successive quick exercises ; a problem in mental arithmetic is to be 
grasped with only a momentary presentation of it ; an object is to 
be drawn from an instantaneous glimpse, etc. Indeed, there is not 
a single school exercise that cannot be so taught as to train this 
ability. In fact, the children are naturally quicker than we suppose 
them to be ; it is often the case that lessons of interest to the child 
are carefully presented in such a way as to actually teach him to be 
slow instead of quick. 

These exercises will be useful especially in connection with 
the school work of Period Four, and tend not only to enliven 
the children and quicken mental processes, but also to delay 
fatigue. 



130 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

V Identification. The children close their eyes while the 
teacher takes one child from the circle or group. The others 
tell the name of the child who was taken. Several cliildren 
leave the room. One of them sings or calls, and the children 
remaining in the room tell who it was that sang or called. 
One of the children puts her hand inside the door, keeping 
the rest of her body concealed, or peeks around the door, by 

which act she is to be identi- 
fied. Various other methods 
of identification may be used. 
Description of the child who 
has left the room may be 
given, including the color of 
the hair and eyes, description 
of dress, etc. 

This pla}' may be made to 
include numerous games for 
sense trammg, identification 
of substances by smell, by 
taste, by touch, and, of objects 
struck or dropped, by hear- 
ing. Selections may be made from the following suggestive 
lists of objects and substances taken, with slight changes, 
from Halleck's Education of the Central Nervous System 
(The Macmillan Company), with kind permission of the 
author. For games involving the sens e of smel l, procure 
small pasteboard boxes of pennyroyal, sage, orris root, cin- 
namon, cloves, caraway, black pepper, red pepper, celery 
seed, coffee, tea, ginger root, gum turpentine, licorice, sas- 
safras, allspice, cardamon, saffron, lavender flowers, star 
anise, myrrh, tonka beans. 




Breaking his Dog to IIakne: 



PERIOD THREE 



131 



Procure small vials of oils of peppermint, clove, winter- 
green, cedar, lemon, bay leaves, rosemary, citronella, verbena, 
nutmeg, lavender, spearmint, bitter almonds, eucalyptus. 

The following flowers are well adapted for these games : 
golden-rod, majoram, rosemary, honeysuckle, clover, daisy, 
tansy, orange flowers, elder flowers, jasmine, tuberose, violet. 




TuoKoi (iiii.v Tkaineu 

hyacinth, lilac, lily of the valley, heliotrope, carnation, gera- 
nium, rose, sweet pea, apple blossoms, peach blossoms. 

The sense of touch may be exercised by the use of the 
following familiar household or schoolroom objects : peas, 
beans, silk, velvet, wool, linen, cotton, hemp, flax, dandelion, 
feathers, clover, pear, nuts of various kinds, leaves of the 
common trees, quince, apple, peach, grape, plum, currant, 
cranberry, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry. 

For training the sense of sight make use of the following : 
common wild flowers, garden flowers, leaves of the common 
trees, various grasses, bark uf most common trees, most 



132 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

common woods, recognition of birds in season, recognition 
of birds by pictures or mounted specimens, recognition of 
famous men from j)ictures, recognition of animals from pic- 
tures, recognition of colors in various objects. 

Field and exploring excursions are of great value for the 
training of the sense of hearing. Children may learn to iden- 
tify the songs of common birds in season, the voices and calls 
of various animals, the sounds of the woods, the sounds of in- 
sects, the trill of toads and frogs, the sounds of various toys 
and musical instruiuents, and to identify by sound various 
objects dropped upon the floor, objects tapped, rustled, etc. 

Many other games which might properly be included 
under the general class of Games of Experimentation will 
be mentioned later in connection with the games involving 
school sul)jects. 

Guess games, riddles, and puzzles. The following are 
some of the common guess games of this period. Riddles 
and puzzles are further mentioned in connection with games 
that particularly involve common school subjects. 

Hoiv Many Fingers? A cliild "blmds" or hides his head 
in another's lap, who says, 

Mingledy, mingledy, clap, clap, clap, 
How many fingers do I hold up? 

The guesser answers ; then the other says, " Two you said, 
and three it was." When the right guess is given the players 
change places. Sometimes one player mounts upon the back 
of the other and says, " Buck, buck, how many fingers do I 
hold up ? " If the guess is right, the players exchange places. 
This game is called Buck, and belongs more properly to the 
next period. 



PERIOD THREE 133 

High or Low ? A pebble is placed in one hand, and the fists 
closed and placed one above the other. The child then says, 

Handy-dandy, riddledy ro, 

Whicli will you have, high or low? 

The guess is made and the hands are opened. This is a com- 
mon way of settling disputes. 

\ ^ Come, It Comes. One child says, " It comes, it comes." 
The others ask, " What do you come by 1 " The first child 
replies, " I come by ," namuig the first letter of the ob- 
ject in mind, which should be some object in sight. The 
others try to guess the object. 

L*i Button, Button. The players, with hands pressed together, 
srt in a circle, the one with the button in the center. She 
holds the button pressed between tlie palms and draws her 
hands down through the hands of each player m turn, say- 
ing, " Hold fast all I give you."- She drops the button slyly 
into the hand of whichever player she chooses. When the 
circle is completed she says to each player in turn, " Button, 
button, who 's got the button ? " The one guessing correctly, 
wins. Forfeits for wrong guesses are sometimes required. 

Odd or Even, Hull Gull, Morra. These are guess games 
described under arithmetic. Allied to the guess games are 
simple conundrums and puzzles wliich are of much interest 
in this period. 

Use may be made of the guessing interest of this period 
and of the previous period in various impromptu exercises in 
the school. For example, children learning to read by the 
phonic method will be mterested in trying to guess a word 
thought of. One child says, " I am thinking of a word that 
ends in and." The next player says, " Is it land ? " the next. 



134 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



" Is it sand ? " and so on, until the right word is guessed. In 
number work games like the followmg may be played. One 
player says, " I am thinking of an example whose answer is 
24." The next player says, "Is it 3 X 8? " the next, " Is it 
4 X 6 ? " and so on. Basedow, it will be remembered, made 
much use of the guessing interest in teaching Latin. It is 
very easy to improvise games of tliis sort for young children 
in a great variety of subjects. 

Singing games. In the traditional singing games of chil- 
dren there is a mine that is yet hardly touched by the grade 
teacher. These games surpass all others in tlie possibilities 




Four-in-11and 



for musical, rhythmical, and dramatic expression, and in 
humor and pathos. The kindergarten has made much of 
these games, recasting not a few, but they are even better 
suited for children of primar}- and intermediate grades. The 



PERIOD THREE 



135 



teacher should consult the classic works of William Wells 
Newell and Alice B. Gomme. It is impossible here to do 
justice to these games, but several are briefly described. 




A Boy's Turtle Farm 
. Photograph by E. Rice 

< 

Loohy Loo, or I put iny Right Hand In. The children stand 

in a circle, one inside acting as leader. She begins by singing, 
I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, 
I give my hand a shake, shake, shake, and turn myself about. 

The song is repeated by the others, who imitate the leader's 

acts. The song goes on, changing the words to "left hand," 

" both hands," " right foot," " left foot," etc. 

^KWhen I was a Young Girl. The children form a circle, 

taking hold of hands. They sing. 

When I was a schoolgirl, a schoolgirl, a schoolgirl, 
When I was a schoolgii-1, oh, this way went I. 
And this way and that way and this way and that way, 
When I was a schoolgirl, oh, this way went I. 



136 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

The song goes on, using the words " teacher," " sweetheart," 
" husband," " baby," " washing," etc. The players suit the 
action to the words in each verse. 

When I was a SJioemaJccr. This is a similar game, the 
song running like this : 

When I was a shoemaker, and a shoemaker was T, 

A this a-way and a this a-way and a this a-way went I. 

Other words introd viced are " gentleman," " lady," " farmer," etc. 
As We go round the Mvlherry Bush. 

As we go round the mulberry bush, 
The nuilberry bush, the mulberry bush, 
As we go round the mulberry bush, 
So early in the morning. 

This is the way we wash our clothes, etc. 
All of a Monday morning. 

This is the way we iron our clothes, etc. 
All of a Tuesday morning. 

And so on through all the days of the week. 

Go Round and Round the Valley. The cliildren form a 
circle, taking hold of hands. One child is outside the circle. 
All sing. 

Go round and round the valley, 

Cio round and round the valley. 

Go round and round the valley, 

As we are all so gay. 

The players then let go hands and the child wdio was outside 
the circle winds in and out among the players singing. 

Go in and out the windows, etc., 
As we are all so gay. 



PERIOD THREE 137 

She next faces one of the children and all sing, 

Go back and face your lover, etc.. 
As we are all so gay. 

Slie then takes the hand of some child and sings, 

Such love I have to show you, etc., 
As we are all so gay. 

The chosen child takes her place. 

The Farmer in the Dell. One child stands in the center 
of the ring. They sing, 

The fanner in the dell, 
The fanner in the dell. 
Heigh-ho, for Rowley O, 
The fanner in the dell. 

The child then chooses another child to stand beside her, as 
they all smg. 

The farmer takes the wife, etc. 

The game goes on nntil a wife, child, nurse, dog, cat, rat, 
cheese, have been chosen. The last verse runs. 

The cheese stands alone, etc. 

Green Gravel. The players form a ring, singing as they 
circle about. 

Green gravel, green gravel, your grass is so green. 
The fairest young damsel that ever was seen. 
I '11 wash you in new milk and dress you in silk. 
And write down your name with gold pen and ink. 

O, ! O, ! your true love is dead ; 

He 's sent you a letter to turn round your head. 



138 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

The child named by the players turns her head at the last 
line, facing outward, but resuming hold of the hands of the 
children next to her. The song continues until all are facing 
outward. 

Jenny Jones. The mother of Jenny conceals her daughter 
behind her, holding out her skirts to keep her from view. 
The other players form a line and advance surging, 

We 've come to see Miss Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones, 

Jenny Jones, 
We 've come to see Miss Jenny Jones, 
How is she now? 

The mother sings. 

Oh, Jenny is washing, washing, washing. 
You can't see her now. 

The others repeat their verse, and the motlier replies. 

Oh, Jenny is starching, etc. 

The song continues, the mother replying in turn that Jenny 
is ironing, ill, dying, dead. All is acted out dramatically, 
Finally all sing. 

There 's red for the soldiers and bhie for the sailors. 
And black for the mourners of poor Jenny Jones. 

London Bridge. Two children form an arcli by taking liold 
of hands and raising them above their heads. The other play- 
ers form in line and pass under the arch while all sing, 

London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, 
London bridge is falling down, my fair lady. 

At the last words of the song, the arms which form the arch 
descend and capture one of the players who happens to be 
passmg under. The one thus caught is made to choose between 
two articles previously agreed upon by the players who form 



PERIOD THREE 



139 




London Bkiuge 



the arch. After choo.sing, the player takes her place behind 
the one representing the article chosen. The song continues 
untn all are caught, when the game ends in a tug of war. 

Recurrent or seasonal games. Little has been said in re- 
gard to the influence of the seasons upon the choice of games ; 
but this influence, which is very noticeable even to the most 
casual observer, should not be forgotten. The suggestions of 
the seasons and of special 
days should continually 
be taken by the teacher. 
The spring, summer, fall, 
and winter, St. Valen- 
tine's Day, May Day, In- 
dependence Day, the 
harvest, Halloween, 
Thanksgiving, Christ- 
mas, New Year's, birthdays, and other occasions brmg their 
sure and urgent suggestions. The folk stories, the folk games, 
and the folk dances appropriate to these times may well 
be utilized. 

Dancing. The revival of folk dances is a source of rejoic- 
ing to many who believe them to be a valuable exercise, and 
in other respects much superior to modern social dances. 
Some of the simple dances of children have been referred to 
under Singing Games. Some of the Scottish folk dances are 
familiar to teachers, also May Pole dances. The latter are 
described in Lmcoln's May Pole Dances. 

A considerable number of games that might properly have 
been included in the classes previously mentioned have, for 
the sake of the convenience of the teacher, been reserved for 
mention under school subjects. 



140 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Arithmetic. Among the many plays and games involving 
the use of arithmetic the following should be mentioned : 

Cotmtiiig. Young children seem to manifest a play inter- 
est in repeating the number series, or counting. This interest 
and delight in repeating the series should be taken advantage 
of in the first school year. 

'f^hiclrMS. Children stand about the number table. The 
teacher scatters a handful of corn kernels on the talile before 
them. The chickens pick them up as fast as they can and 
count to see who has the most. 

Bice. Paste numbers upon inch cubes. The children throw 
these as dice, two at a time, combming the numbers thrown. 
Tliis may be played in class at the iiumljer table or at the 
desks, the children throwing the dice cpdetly upon blotting 



1 




V 




A 1 


4< 






SiA&M 


. 


ga 






'. 

=( 


ti 

^ 


1^ 


' %r ■ 


% 


% 


i 


*i3r3 


Li 
t 




i 




Wi^^r-'^ 


Mil III, 1 III 




F 








^1 





Dancing 

paper and writing down the sum of combinations thrown, 
thus : 4 + 3 = 7. The same device may be used in subtrac- 
tion or multiplication. 

Dominoes. Dominoes, or cards marked after the manner of 
dominoes, may be used. The children draw from a number 



PERIOD THREE 



141 



of cards, match them, and add the numhers at the ends. 
Match in two dh-ections ; three directions ; four directions. 
Invent variations. 

Numher Tops. Tops can be made of cardboard cut in the 
form of regular polygons. Numbers are written upon the sides. 




Dancing to the Hurdy-Gukdy 



A small stick is stuck through the center of the polygon and 
the top is spun by the lingers. The cliildren coml3in%sthe 
numbers appearing on the upper side of the top as it falls, in 
two spins, three spins, etc. A number may be written at the 
center of the top and used for subtraction or multiplication 
or even division. 

Tenpins. Small cardboard cylinders are set up as tenpins 
on the floor or on the number table. The children, stand- 
ing at a convenient distance, bowl at the pins with small 
wooden or hard rubber Imlls. Scores may be kept at the board 
and added. 



142 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

"XT^ean Bags. Concentric rings are drawn upon the floor 
and the bean bags are pitched at them. The rings may be 
numbered to suit the convenience, and the scores kept as in 
games previously described. 

Odd or Even. The players take a certain numlier of beans 
or marbles. One places his hands behind his back, arranges 
the marbles in them as he desires, then stretches one closed 



The Mav Pole 

Photograph by C. W. Whitney 

hand out before him, and says, " Odd or even ? " One of the 
others guesses whether the number contamed in the hand is 
an odd or an even number. If he guesses right, he is given a 
marble. A similar game is Hull Gull. Here the cliild who 
holds out his hand says, " Hull gull, hands full, parcel, how 
many ? " If, for example, three is guessed and five is right, 
the first player says, " Give me two to make it five." 



PERIOD THREE 143 

Toy Money. Toy money may be bought at toy stores or 
made iu a rough way by children, as by cutting out round 
pieces of paper for corns and rectanguhir pieces for bills, and 
writing the denomination upon them. Children take much 
pleasure in playing store with this money, and acquire con- 
siderable facility in making change. 

Store. Cardboard may be cut and marked to represent 
different articles of merchandise. These articles are bought 
and sold, toy money being used and change being made. 
Weighing and measuring may be mcluded also. 

Morra. All hold out hands quickly with a certain numljcr 
of fingers extended. The one who first names the exact num- 
ber of fingers extended, which number is determined by 
counting later, wins. 

Sufjgestive Games for Drill. (1) Children stand in a row. 
Count up and down the line, forward and backward, qvuckly. 
Whoever hesitates too long, or misses, moves down the line. 
In the same way count by twos, by threes, and so on. 
(2) Play as above, but every multiple of some number agreed 
upon, as two, must be called " buzz." Have a penalty for 
missing, as going down the line or taking the seat. (3) Sides 
may be chosen, the two lines facing each other, the counting 
passing back and forth from one side to the other. The side 
having most at the close wms. (4) Children stand in line, 
facing one who is called teacher. The teacher has a card 
in her hand and gives out such tasks as " count to twenty," 

" count back," " count by tw^os," " write at the board ," etc. 

Whoever misses takes Ms seat. (5) Cliildren stand in line. 
The child at the head says, "1 + 1 = 2"; the next, "2 + 1 
= 3"; and so on, down the line and through the tables. 
(6) First child recites a table, the second another, and so on. 



144 



EDUCATION BY FLAYS AND GAMES 



Whoever misses pays some penalty. Devise similar games 
with sides. (7) First child says, " 8 : 7 + 1 = 8, 6 + 2 = 8, 
5 + 3 = 8, 4 + 4 = 8"; the next takes a different number, and 
so on. Whoever makes a mistake, or repeats a number already 

given, moves down the line. 
(8) Play similarly with mul- 
ti})lication, as "16: 2x8 = 
10,4x4 = 16." (9) Choose 
sides. The leader of one side 
begins by reciting a table, the 
next takes up the next table, 
and so on. The teacher times 
the side to see how long it 
takes to get through the 
tables. If a mistake is made, 
the next child must begin 
with the same table. The 
teacher times the other side 
also to see which side wins. 
(10) Similar to (4), but in- 
volving miscellaneous prob- 
lems. Devise other games, 
adapting difficulty to the 
grade of the children. 

Numhev Races. When all 
are ready disclose examples 
in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, which have 
been concealed from sight. The one who has the largest num- 
ber of correct answers within a given time wins. The time 
limit should be generous at first and the examples not too 
many or too difficult. The game may be played with sides. 




Setting lt a Home eou the Biuds 
Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 



PERIOD THREE 145 

The time limit may be gradually shortened. Such work, wisely 
couducted, tends to strengthen greatly the power of concen- 
tration and to give a sweet joy in conscious achievement. 

Bridge Board. Let the boys make a board by boring 
auger holes through a piece of wood of suitable size and saw- 
ing it m Ime with the centers of the holes. Numbers should 
be written above the I j ^ g ^ ^ g ^ '^ ^ 
arches, as shown in u^"\_/^^_/0_/^^_/^~^_^~\_/~\_/'~^-y~ 
the diagram. The game is to roll marljles through the arches 
from a given distance, the player scoring the number marked 
above the hole through which he shoots. 

Nature plays. These include the following : 

Ex'pJoriny. The exploring play of children already men- 
tioned is one of the best possible means of nature study. 
This combines naturally with the collecting plays and with 
some of the livmting plays already mentioned. 

Collecting. Gathering common wild flowers, grasses, ferns, 
and leaves should be encouraged. If desired, these may be pre- 
served in a simple but systematic wa}', as by laying away in 
boxes or pressing in books, or impressions may be taken with 
blue-print paper. Glass may be ol)tained for the asking from 
any photographer, out of his accumulation of spoiled plates. 
Cocoons may be gathered and preserved. There is no more 
interesting experiment for cliildren than that of placing a 
cocoon of one of our large moths in the schoolroom and 
seeing the beautiful creature come out, spread its wings, 
and fly about the room. Live insects may be collected for 
observation in the schoolroom. An ants' nest can easily be 
made by taking an old school slate, filling it even with the 
frame with sand, and covermg with a pane of glass. Place 
the slate on a block or brick resting in a shallow pan of 



146 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



water, to prevent the ants from going away. Cover the glass 
with a piece of cardboard to darken the nest. Scrape up an 
ants' nest, — ants, eggs, dirt, and all, — and pour on top of 
the cardboard. The ants will transfer 
their eggs to the dirt in the slate in 
a short time. Be sure to leave a space 
at one corner of the glass where the 
ants may get below it. Caterpillars 
about to spin cocoons are interesting. 
Collections of stones and shells are 
valuable. Making a mental or written 
list of the birds seen in the spring 
is helpful. Water specimens should 
be gathered with nets for the a(|ua- 
liiim, especially skippers, newts, cad- 
dice flies, shiners, young mud turtles, 
frogs' eggs and toads' eggs for hatch- 
ing. Nuttmg, berrying, and fishing 
should also be mentioned. Especially 
should the saving and feeding of or- 
phan birds be encouraged. 

Camping ivith Elders. The begin- 
nings of woodcraft, watching animal 
life, " hunting without gun or camera," 
are to be encouraged in this period. 

Gardening. The beginning of 
gardening — preparing soil, planting 
seeds, transplanting, watering, and weeding — is adapted to 
tills period. If there is no plot of ground available, a good 
garden can be made anywhere by bringing the soil and pro- 
tecting it from being washed away by the rains. At least, 




(JurilANS 

Photograph by Dr. C. F. 
Hodge 



PERIOD THREE 



147 



boxes may be used. There are several vegetables that will 
mature before the last of June in the climate of Massachu- 
setts, such as Alaska peas, ouion sets, lettuce, spinach, flat 
turnips, early beets. 

Pets. This is the time for the IjeginnLng of the care of pets 
at home and at school. 

Geography plays and games. The following are suggestive 
of activities that are of interest to the teacher of geography. 

Sand Pile. The sand- 
pile play offers a most 
excellent opportunity for 
the study of geography, 
the making of caves, huts, 
hills, valleys, plains, roads, 
miniature villages, farms 
with toy cattle, twig for- 
ests, fences, telegraph 
poles, etc. The effect of 
showers on the "hills" and 
the course of streamlets 
and the like should be 
noticed. See " The Story 
of a Sand Pile," by G. 
Stanley Hall. 

Playing in the brook brings knowledge of water courses, 
erosion, and river valleys ; building dams and sluiceways, 
knowledge of water power and the like ; flying kites, knowl- 
edge of winds and currents ; sailing boats, playing trains, 
playing store, knowledge of navigation, transportation, com- 
merce, and traffic, or at least sense perceptions necessary for 
later knowledge. 




A Pui/K WlNNKK 

Photograph by Dr. C. F. Hodge 



148 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Gardening and nature collections, woodcraft, and pets, 
which have been previously mentioned, play right into the 
hands of the geogi'aphy teacher, bring a knowledge of habitat, 
of the effect of seasons and climate, and also a rudimentary 
knowledge of agriculture and of the relation of plants and 
animals to man. 

Sliced Maps. Maps from old geographies may be pasted 
upon cardboard and cut after the manner of sliced maps or 




The Sand Pile 
Kindness of G. Stanley Hall 



animals of the toy stores. These afford much amusement and 
not a little knowledge of maps. Pictures of animals of differ- 
ent regions may be treated in the same way. i 
Pegging the Map. Unmarked maps are pasted upon boards f ' 
or heavy cardboard, gimlet holes being bored at the location 



i\ 



PERIOD THREE 



149 



of important cities. Pegs bearing the names or initials of the 
cities are to be inserted in the proper holes. The map is then 
compared with an ordinary map. Wlien there are several 
players the pegs may be distributed among them. Then 
each in turn places a peg in the map where he thinks it 
should be placed. If no objection is made, he scores a point ; 




A School Garden 
Kindness of W. A. Baldwin 



if one or more object, a map is consulted, and if the objections 
are right the players objecting score a point each ; if wrong, 
they forfeit a point. 

Re/peating Games. For the most advanced children of the 
period some of the repeating games, as My Good Little Man, 
or Beast, Bird, or Fish, previously described, may be adapted 
for geography. 



150 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Language, reading, and spelling games. The beginnings 
of language lie unquestionably in the instinctive and spon- 
taneous efforts of the child. The same is in a measure true 
of reading and spelling. The story interest has been one of 
the most powerful motives in language development in the 
race and in the child. 

StoyHes. These should be mostly fairy tales, fables, and 
other fictions ; then poetry ; and then biography. 

Printing. A very usable printing outfit suitable for busy 
work in connection with language and reading, may be bought 
for twenty-five cents, or even less. 

Dramatic and imitative play. The make-believe plays of 
cliildren, playing school, house, church, and the like, are valu- 
able here; also the acting out of stories, as Little Eed Eiding- 




A Story 

Hood, The Three Bears, Three Little Kittens, Hiawatha, and 
others, may be utilized with much profit in school work. 

Spelling Game. The children stand in line. The leader 
spells a word. The next must spell a word beginning with 
the last letter of the word spelled by the first child. The 



i 



♦ 



PERIOD THREE 



151 



game goes on in a similar manner, those who miss taking 
their seats. The hist one standing wins. The game may be 
played with sides. 

Tliis game may be varied by confining the words to articles 
found in a grocery store, for example, or to the names of the 
children in school, and in many other ways ; or a child may 




A Boys' Garden 



name the first letter of a word thought of, the next add a 
new letter, and so on, until a word of a number of letters 
previously agreed upon (as six) is spelled. Wlien a player is 
unable to add a letter he must say, " Pass." Three passes put 
one out of the game. A player may be challenged as to the 
word he has in mind at any time, but a challenge, if correctly 
answered, counts as a pass for the challenger. 

Spelling Match. This is the old-fashioned game, much like 
the above, the words to be spelled being dictated by the 
teacher. The players stand in a single line and " spell down," 
or sides may l:)e chosen. 



152 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

SiJellituj Lotto. This is played similarly to Numl^er Lotto. 
(Jards may be bought or made having on them names of 
objects and pictures of tlie ol»jects. The letters are drawn 
from a pile or a bag. The one who first covers all the words 
on this card with the proper letters wins. 

Logomachy. This is plaj-ed with cardljoard letters printed 
on one side only. These are placed, letters down, on the desk 
or table. Each player draws one letter. The one drawing 
the letter nearest the beginning of the alphabet plays first, 
the one on his left second, and so on. The letters so drawn 
are replaced and the one who plays first draws again and 
places his letter face up on the taltle. The next player does 
likewise. As soon as any player can combine one or more of 
his own letters with those of the other players so as to make 
a word, he takes their letters, spells the word, and places it 
in front of him. A word so made may be taken from a player 
by another, if the latter can add a letter to it to make a 
different word. The one getting a certain numl)er of words 
first wins. 

Buried Words. " Somewhat back from the village street 
stands an old-fasliioned country seat." Find a country dwel- 
ling and a body of water. Answer, villa and sea. Fruits, 
flowers, and animals are good words to conceal. Quotations, 
original sentences, or single words may be given. 

Anagrams. The letters which compose some word are 
placed upon the board, but not in the right order. The 
players try to arrange the letters in the right order. The one 
doing so first wins. A hint of the word may be given, if 
desired, as by telling that it is the name of a fruit or of some 
object on the table. This game may be played with or without 
cardboard letters. 



PERIOD THREE 



153 



Dictionary. A long word is given or written upon the 
board. The children make as many words as possible out of 
the letters of the given word. 

The interest in competition, beginning at this period, may 
be utilized to advantage in an ordinary spellmg lesson. Write 




School Flower Garden 
Kindness of W. A. Baldwin 

a list of words on the board, concealing them from the chil- 
dren. At the proper time disclose the words and allow three 
minutes for study. The child who can write the most words 
correctly from memory beats. Care should be taken not to 
make the lists too long or too difficult. 



154 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Riddles, Origiiial and Standard. Cliildren of this period 
should have become familiar with the best of the classical 
riddles, such as Humpty Dumpty ; Old Mother Twitchet ; 
Eound as an Apple ; Little Nanny Etticoat ; Elizabeth, Elspeth, 
Betsy, and Bess ; As I was going to St. Ives ; Two Legs sat 
upon Three Legs; Chink, Chink; The Chimney; The Sphinx 
Kiddle; and others. Composing original riddles and conun- 
drums, advancing from the simple guess games of the previous 
period, will furnish good language exercises for this period. 

Music plays. The musical mterests are manifested in 
various ways in this period. There should always be given 
opportunity for listening to good music. In singing much 
should be made of rote songs. The traditional singing games, 
described on pages 134—138, are of special interest. Children 
of this ageaelight in toy instruments. Frequently a kinder- 
symphonie orchestra may be undertaken with great profit. 

Drawing plays. At this age the drawing interest seems 
to center upon tlie representation of common objects, such as 
houses, trees, and the like, and particularly of the human 
figure and animals in action. Much can be made of painting 
pictures, doll dresses, and like occupations, also free-hand 
cutting, especially of dolls and animals. Silhouettes and 
shadow pictures and sand and clay modeling are of value. 



PEEIOD FOUK (Ages 10-12) 

Essential characteristics. The essential characteristics of 
this period are as follows. In general there is a lessened rate 
of physical growth, particularly for Ijoys, but rapid structural 
development ; there is an apparent lull in the demands upon 
the system ; it is the period of greatest immunity from dis- 
ease, the specific intensity of life culminating in this period, 
— at eleven to twelve in girls, and at twelve to thirteen in 
boys ; the development of the special senses and their associ- 
ations is continuing ; the coordination of muscular action and 
feeling seems to be the special import of this period in 
the nervous system ; it is the time for the development of 
facility and skill, advancing upon the beginnmgs of the pre- 
vious period. It is the golden period for memorizing and 
drill ; the general puzzle interest is culminating. It is a 
period of great physical activity ; now comes the height of 
interest in running games. The element of coo[)e^Pc)n in 
games and plays is developing, although the iiij^dual still 
remains most prominent. It is a period of self-assertion and 
apparent selfishness ; there is less interest in adults than in 
companions ; interest in organization begins, but it is rather 
for one's own profit ; there is great interest in boys' clubs 
and secret societies, mostly athletic or predatory in nature. 
The historical interest hes mainly in the life and adventures of 
warriors, explorers, and the like ; the hunting, camping, and 
collection interests are keen ; sex differences are appearing. 

155 



156 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMP:S 



Apparatus and toys. Tlie apparatus and toys of great in- 
terest are such as the f oUowing : rings, trapeze, parallel bars, 
horizontal bar, vavilting bar, climbing rope, tumbling bed, 
climbing pole, balance swing, ladder, teeter ladder, sliding 
pole, jumping standards, jumping pole, giant stride, stilts ; 
baseball diamond ; basket-l)all court ; shinney sticks ; ring- 
toss ; horseshoe quoits ; ten pins ; croquet set ; tennis court ; 
yard for running games; garden; sloyd bench and tools; 




The Climb and 8lii>e 

liomemade toys, kites, sailboats, butterfly net, fish net ; fish- 
ing tackle ; bows and arrows, target ; aquarium ; back-yard 
menagerie ; hut or cave ; double-runner, toboggan, skates ; arti- 
ficial skating rink and coast, if natural facilities are not pro- 
vided ; swimming pool ; catamaran or Crusoe raft ; drawing, 
painting, sewing, embroidery, and beadwork material ; musical 
instruments. 

Free, active plays. The free, informal, active plays of the 
previous periods are now largely superseded by formal games 



PERIOD FOUR 



157 



of great physical activity, particularly running games ; but the 
character of the play is still individualistic ratlier than coop- 
erative, and there is still much exploiting of strength, speed, 
and skill, as m climbing, wrestling, racmg, skating, swim- 
ming, jumping, throwing, shooting, bicycling, and the like. 

Swimming. Practically all boys and girls ought to learn 
to swim before the close of this period. When swimming 
pools are not provided 
much can be made of the 
ponds and streams and 
the seashore nearest at 
hand. There are few 
towns, in New England 
at least, which do not 
have natural swimming 
pools that could Ije util- 
ized so that both boys 
and girls might learn to 
swim in them. The ex- 
periments of Dr. P. P). 
Hawk, of the University of Pennsylvania, showed that swim- 
ming stood at the head of all exercises in its beneficial effects 
upon the blood. 

Skating, Coasting, and Other Winter Sports. Participation 
in winter sports should be heartily encouraged. Skating rinks 
have been successfully made in city school yards, mainly by 
the boys, and coasting tracks constructed. 

Archery. Boys and girls can make their own bows, arrows, 
and targets. Great interest is probable, when archery is once 
started, especially if in connection with playing Indians. See 
The Birch- Bark Roll, also Two Little Savages, both by Ernest 




(ilAM SxUlDli 



158 KDCCATION BY PLAYS AND flAMI<:S 

Tliompsdii Seton, for full suggestions for forming a baud of 
Indians, for making bows and arrows, and for standards 
of marksmanship. Also see The Witchery of Archery, by 
]\Iaurice Thompson. 

Dramatic and imitative plays. The dramatic and inuta- 
tive plays of tliis period mciude attempts at circus playing, 



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The Swimming Fool 

minstrel shows. Wild West shows, and the like ; playing In- 
dian, hunters, trappers ; attempts at secret societies, rituals, 
and ordeals. 

Constructive play. The flush of interest in skill and in 
the details of workmanship, appearing in this period, suggest 
the opportunity for developmg pride in good work. If the 
ambitious interests of the previous period have been well di- 
rected, this will prove a golden period for the manual-training 
teacher. The manual training may be based largely upon 
the constructive and other play interests of the child, and 
should correlate with nature study, as previously suggested, 



PERIOD FOUR 



159 



and with physical training, as in the making oi gymnastic 
apparatus and toys. Suggestive lines of constructive interests 
at this age are huts, tree houses ; box traps ; iisliing tackle, 
fisli nets, bait cages ; insect nets, mounting boards, develop- 
ing cages, vivaria, atpiaria, ants' nests ; squirrel cages, rabbit 
pens ; bird houses ; kites ; toy sailboats ; bows and arrow^s, 
slings ; sleds, " scooters," double-runners, skate sails, coasts 
and skating ponds; snow forts, snow houses; snowplows; 
cricket bats, tipcats and clubs; jumping standards, hurdles, 
horizontal bar, springboard, 
stilts ; rafts, catamaran ; toy 
railway; sewing, fancy 
needlework ; doll millinery : 
paper dolls and doll dresses : 
knitting, crocheting, weav- 
ing ; cooking ; pottery. The 
relation of seasons and 
calendar days to interests 
should l)e noted. 

Games of chasing, hunt- 
ing, throwing, shooting. 

The following games of chasing, hunting, throwing, shoot- 
ing, fighting, are of special interest at this period and are 
adapted to the peculiar physical needs at this time. They 
involve great physical activity and strength, speed and skill, 
which are displayed individuall}" rather than in concerted 
action, although cooperation is frequently involved. They 
are peculiarly adapted to further the development of the 
finer motor adjustments and the coordination of muscular 
action with sense judgments, which it is the special office of 
this period to develop. 




Prize Bird Houses 
Volunteer home work 



160 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Prisoners' Base. Sides are chosen. Each side has a goal 
or base large enough to accommodate the whole side at once, 
also a prison in the corner of the yard, diagonally opposite 
the goal. The object of the game is to tag and place in 
prison the players of the opposing side. Any player who is 
beyond the bomids of his goal may be tagged by one of the 

opposing side who left goal 
later than he. When tagged 
the player is placed in 
prison, the tagger being 
allowed to return to his 
goal. A prisoner may be 
released if one of his own 
side can succeed in reaching 
him without being tagged, 
lioth then Ijeing allowed to 
return to their base ; but 
if the runner is tagged in 
the attempt to release his 
mate, he must himself go 
to prison. The side that 
succeeds in placing all the 
players of the opposing side 
in prison wins. Prisoners' 
Base is sometimes modified by an agreement to terminate 
the game whenever a player succeeds in getting into his 
opponents' goal without being tagged, thereby scoring a 
victory fcjr his side. 

Hill Dill. This game, which was described on page 103, 
continues to be of great interest and value in this period, 
especially when played on the ice. 




Volunteer Natuke Wokk 
Photograph by C. A. Putnam 



I 



PERIOD FOUR 



161 



*-¥^idl in the Ring. A circle is formed about the bull, 
all taking strong hold of hands. The bull tries to break 
through the ring. If he is successful all give chase, the one 
catching liini becoming the next bull. Sometimes the bull, 
before attempting to break through, asks of each pair hold- 
ing hands, " What is this ? " to which various answers are 
given, as "Tempered steel," "Hemp rope," "Barbed wire," etc. 




SllELlTiiLli 



^Shee2)fold. A ring is formed as in Bull in the Bing, a sheep 
inside and a wolf outside. The wolf tries to break into the 
ring through the joined hands or by ducking under them. If 
he succeeds the sheep is let out, but the circle closes to hmder 
the wolf. If the wolf succeeds m catching the sheep, the boy 
who let the wolf pass must be wolf and his companion the 
sheep. This game is sometimes called Cat aud Bat. 

Center Base. One player stands in the center of the ring 
with a ball, which he tosses at some child in the circle. The 



162 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

child catcliiug the ball runs and places it in the center, and' 
then gives chase to the one who threw it. If he can tag liim 
l)efore he returns and touches the l)all, the tagger becomes 
thrower ; otherwise the first chikl throws again. 

Fox and Farmer. In this game the farmer, starting from, 
outside the circle, gives chase to the fox, who starts from the 
center. The fox runs in and out between the cMldren, and 
the farmer must follow in exactly the same path. 

Green Wolf, or Hunkety. This is played like I Spy, except 
that a stick is placed at the goal, which may be kicked down 
by any one who succeeds in reaching the goal without being 
" spied," thereby releasing those who have been caught, pro- 
vided they can get out of sight before the blinder has replaced 
the stick at the goal. The blinder may tag his goal only in 
case the stick is up. The new game begins after all are in, 
tlie first one caught being " it." " Green wolf ! " is the cry of 
tlie })layer who kicks down the stick. 

Wolf. In this game the wolf hides and the other players 
remain at the goal. After a proper interval the search for 
the wolf begins. This is usually heralded by a shout, as 
" Coming ! Say nothing ! " If the wolf is not ready he cries, 
" No ! " If he makes no answer, the search continues. When 
the wolf is discovered, the player first seeing him shouts 
" AVolf ! " and all rush for the goal. If the wolf succeeds in 
tagging any rvniner before he can get to the goal, that player 
must also be a wolf. The game continues imtil all are wolves. 
The wolves may all hide together. If he desires, a wolf may 
start out for the goal before he is discovered. If he reaches the 
goal first, he has a good chance to touch a number of players. 

Relievo. Sides are chosen and a circular goal is marked out. 
One side scatters and hides, while the other side gues to hunt, 



PERIOD FOUR 163 

excepting one or more who may be left to guard the goal. 
When a member of the hiding party is discovered and tagged, 
he is placed in the goal. He may be released if one of his 
side can succeed in reaching him without being tagged. If 
all are caught the game is renewed, the hunters becoming 
the hiders. 

Day and Night. Sides are chosen, each side selecting a 
goal. All take their places midway between the goals. The 
leader tosses in the air a disk (or coin) black on one side, 
white on the other. If white comes uppermost, the " day " 
players rush for their goal, the " niglit " players pursuing. 
Those who are caught before reaching their goal are out of 
the game. The remaining players take their places as before, 
the disk is thrown, and the chase is given. When all the play- 
ers on one side are caught, the other side is declared winner. 

Fox. The one who is the fox lias a den marked out on the 
ground. The other players use knotted handkerchiefs, pom- 
meling the fox whenever he is out of his den and has put 
both feet on the ground. If the fox, while hopping on one 
foot, can succeed in tagging one of his tormentors, the one 
tagged must become the fox. The fox may be struck only 
when he is outside his den, and then only when he has by 
some mishap, or otherwise, placed both feet on the ground, 
in which case he may be pommeled back to his den. 
^JSling the Monikey. Similar to Fox. The monkey is tied to 
the limb of a tree, or something of the sort, by a rope fastened 
about his waist, his feet barely touching the ground. He has 
a knotted handkerchief like the rest, and if he can succeed in 
hitting one of the other players, that one must be the monkey. 

Bade, the Bear. This is also similar to Fox. The bear 
has a rope about his leg, which is held by a companion 



164 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

who acts as protector. The bear keeper has a knotted 
handkerchief aud strikes at the players who try to hit the 
bear. The bear must keep part of his body in his den and 
remain on his hands and knees, but may aid his keeper in 
any way that he can. If the keeper succeeds m hitting any 
player, that player takes the bear's place. 

Hop])ing Bases. Sides are chosen and bases marked out. 
The sides line up within their respective bases, fold their 
arms, and hop toward the other side, trying to make their 
way into their opponents' base, l)ut preventing their oppo- 
nents from getting into tlieirs. When one succeeds in reach- 
ing the enemy's base, he puts the ()p})onent who was opposite 
him out of the game and may return to help his companions. 
The arms may not be unfolded at any time, and whoever 
drops a foot to the ground is out. The side getting possession 
of the other's base wins. 

Folloiv the Leader. This game has been previously described, 
but is adapted to this period when an ingenious and active 
leader can be found. 

Whip Tag. The players stand in a circle with hands behind 
the back. One carries a knotted cloth or stuffed billy around 
the circle, placing it in the hands of some player. The player 
receivmg the billy immediately turns u})()n Ins right-hand 
neighbor and drives him round the circle and back to Ms 
place, hittmg him as many times as he is able. He then 
places the billy in the hands of some other player and the 
game goes on. 

Cross Tag. The tagger names the one whom he will chase. 
The one who is chased may be relieved by any one who 
passes between him and the tagger, who must then give chase 
to the one who has relie\ed the runner. This continues until 



PERIOD FOUR 



165 



some one is tagged. He then names one whom he will try 
to tag, and gives chase. 

Hang Tag. In this game no one may be tagged whu is 
hanging from any object with his whole body free from the 
ground or floor. No two players may hang from the same 
object, the one coming last forcing the first to drop. 

Follow Tag. The players are all numbered from one up to 
as many as are playing. Each tries to tag the one ahead, but 
tries to keep from being tagged by the one 
behind ; that is, number two tries to tag 
nundjer one, but tries to escape being 
tagged by number three. 

Fox and Geese. A large square or cir- 
cle, such as is shown in the acccjmpanying 
diagrams, is trodden out in the snow or 
marked on the clear ice with skates. 
The fox is stationed in the center 
and the geese are scattered about. The 
fox tries to tag the geese, but may 
not run on the circular lines, or, if 
a square field is used, may run only 
on certain lines agreed upon. When 
one is tagged he becomes the fox. 

Hunting Tag. One is a hunter and the others are rab- 
bits. The hunter must catch and hold a rabbit long enough 
to give it three slaps. The rabbit then becomes a hound 
and helps the hunter. The hunter can then tag only 
when the hound catches and holds a rabbit. Each rabbit 
caught becomes a hound, the game continuing until all are 
caught. The first rabbit caught becomes the hunter in the 
new oauie. 




166 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Twos and Threes, or Three Deep. The players are arranged 
in two circles, those in the outer circle standing directly 
behind those in the inner circle and close to them. One 
player is tagger and another is runner. The tagger attempts 
to tag the runner, who may take his place in front of any 
two players of the circles, whereupon the player in the outer 




Twos ANU TllKEES 

circle, in front of whom the runner has stationed liimself, 
becomes the runner. If a runner is tagged he becomes tagger, 
and the former tagger becomes the runner. 

Hare and Hound. One or two players are the hares, the 
others are the hounds. The hares are supplied with small 
scraps of paper, which they scatter for the scent. The hares 
start out, and as soon as they are out of sight they begin to scat- 
ter the scent. After the time fixed by agreement has elapsed 
the hounds give chase, following the scent. The game may be 
finished after a given time has elapsed or after a certain terri- 
tory or distance has been run over, as previously agreed upon. 
If a hound catches a hare before the game ends, the hounds 
win ; if not, the hares win. If the hounds catch sight of the 



PERIOD FOUR 167 

hares during the cliase they may leave the scent only in 
ease it has been previously agreed that they may do so. The 
hares may not separate beyond hailing distance at any time. 

Chalk the Arroio. Tliis is a variation of Hare and Hound, 
and is a simpler game. For the scent, the runner chalks each 
corner that he turns with an arrow pointing in the direction 
that he takes. 

Racing. For sliarp running, a course of about sixty yards 
sliould Ije laid out for boys of this period. The standard set 
for boys under thirteen years of age by the Public Schools 
Athletic League is eight and three-fifths seconds for a sixty- 
yard nni. 

Relay Race. Teams of four runners eacli line up. At the 
signal one riumer from each team starts and, upon complet- 
ing the course, touches the second runner of his team, who 
instantly takes up the race in place of the first, and so on 
until the last runner of each team has started. The team 
which has the fourth runner in first wins the race. This is 
easily played in a schoolroom, the aisles being utilized for 
the course, only two teams racing at once. 

Potato Race. Potatoes or other objects are placed at inter- 
vals along the race course in as many lines as there are 
racers. At the signal the runners start and gather up the 
potatoes, one at a time, and place them in a basket or other 
receptacle provided for the purpose. The one who picks up 
all the potatoes and returns to the starting place first wins. 
This may be played in the schoolroom, aisles serving for 
the courses. In this case several blocks, or other objects 
serving as potatoes, are placed in a pile at one end of each 
aisle. At the signal the runners race down the aisles, return- 
ing with one block at a time, which they place in circles 



168 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



marked on the floor at the head of their respective aisles. 
This may Ite played also after the manner of a relay race. 
In that case, as soon as a runner has gathered all the blocks 




PuTATO 1\A(E IN TIIH Scnooi. YaRU 



lie returns to his seat. As soon as he has done so the second 
pupil in his row instantly starts to carry the objects back to 
the original place. The third pupil then instantly takes up 
the race, and so on. Tlie row finisliing first wins. 



PERIOD FOUR 169 

Obstacle Race. This may be greatly varied. The course 
is marked out and various tasks or " stunts " are set for the 
runners to do on the way. 

Fireman's Race. A cart or pair of wheels is provided for 
each team, which consists of any convenient nund)er of players. 
All the members of each team take hold of the rope attached 
to their cart. The teams race to see which can draw its cart 
over the course quickest. It is best to run several teams at 
once, if possible ; otherwise each team must be timed. 

Chariot Race. The runners race in pairs with arms locked. 
The one breaking hold loses the race. If desired, three or 
four may lock arms. 

}Vlicclharroio Race. One runner in each pair must be a 
wheelbarrow, running on his hands, his feet l)eing held by 
his mate. The one getting his wheelbarrow over the line 
first wins. 

Hoiijying Race. The racers hop on either the right foot or the 
left, as desired. The foot may not l)e changed after starting. 

Jumpiiig Race. The racers jump over the course ; no steps 
are allowed to be taken. 

Baseball. Eegulation baseball is attempted in this period, 
but very commonly the game is modified more or less. The 
ball games described under the previous period are of interest ; 
also games like Kick the Ball and Hit the Stick, described 
on pages 178 and 179. 

Town Ball. This is a variation of Baseball. Sides are 
chosen. Pitcher and catcher are the only regularly assigned 
positions, the other players being scattered about the field. 
A batter is out if he misses a strike and the ball is caught 
by the catcher ; if he misses three strikes ; if a fly is caught ; 
if the ball is fielded between him and the base to which he is 



170 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



running. A side is out when all its players have been put out. 
When all but one batter are out, the last batter is allowed 
to call in one of his side, provided he can make three runs. 
He is allowed to call upon one of his side to run for him. 

Duck on a Rock. Each player has a smooth stone of con- 
venient size, called a duck. A large fiat stone or block is 
found. All pitch their ducks at the stone from some line 
agreed upon. The one whose duck lands farthest away from 




Playin(; Ball on a Ivuof Gari>en 



the stone is " it." He places his duck on the stone and the 
others pitch their ducks at it, trying to knock it off. The one 
who is " it " tries to tag any player who picks up his duck 
after throwing it. If he succeeds in tagging a player before he 
can get back to the line with his duck, the one tagged must 
he " it." No one may be tagged, however, while the duck is off 
the stone. This game may be played wdth bean bags m the 
schoolroom. The duck is then placed upon a desk or a box. 
Rolly-Pooly. A tennis ball is needed for this game. As 
many holes as there are players are dug in the ground. One 
player is chosen roller, the others standing within a certain 



PERIOD FOUR 171 

distance from the holes. The roller, at a distance of about 
fifteen feet, tries to roll the ball into one of the holes. If he 
misses after three trials, he has a pebble placed in his hole. 
If he succeeds, the one into whose hole the ball is rolled picks 
it up quickly and throws it at some one of the players, who 
have scattered. If he hits one, that one must have a pebble 
placed in his hole and he must become roller. If no one 
is hit, the thrower has a pebble placed in his hole and he 
becomes roller. When a player has three pebbles in liis hole 
he must stand at a given distance and let all the others throw 
the liall at his back. 

Crackahoiit. This is a very lively game for a short recess. 
A soft ball is used, but it should be hard enough to sting a 
little when a boy is hit fairly with it. The boy having posses- 
sion of the ball shouts, " Crackabout ! " and throws it at the 
nearest player. All rush to get the l)all and scatter again as 
soon as some boy gets it. The boy who succeeds in getting 
the ball quickly throws it at some one, whereupon all rush 
together again to get possession of it. This is continued until 
all are out of breath. A modification is Spud. 

Spud. In this game the one who has the ball calls out the 
name of one of the other players, at the same time dropping 
the liall. The one called gets the ball as quickly as possible 
and throws it at some other player; if he hits him, that player 
throws it at some one else, and so on until a miss is made. 
A miss is called a spud, and three spuds against a player 
entitle all the others to throw the ball at him at a distance 
agreed upon. After a miss the one who misses starts the 
game over as in the beginning. 

Corner Ball. »Sides are chosen and half as many bases or 
corners selected as there are players. One side occupies the 



172 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

bases and the other side the field within the bases. The 
players at the bases have the ball and pass it about among 
themselves, waiting for a good chance to hit one of the players 
in the field. A player who is hit is put out of the game, but 
if he catches the ball he is not out. If a player throws the 
l:)all at an opponent and fails to hit him, he is out. When 
all on one side are out the victors line up at a given distance 
and throw the ball in turn at the first player who was put 
out. A modification of tliis game is Dodge Ball. 

Dodge Ball. Half the players form a circle, the other half 
standing within the circle. The players forming the circle 
throw the ball at those within the circle. Whoever is hit 
must take his place with those forming the circle. The last 
player left m the circle is the winner. Sometimes it is allow- 
able to catch the ball instead of dodging it, but a fair catch 
must be made or it counts against the player attempting it. 
This game is easily adapted to the schoolroom. 

Balloon Ball. Tliis is a modification of Pillow Pex, and is 
a good game for the schoolroom. A large, very light ball or 
l)alloon is used. Sides are chosen. A line or an aisle separates 
the two sides. The object of the game is to prevent the 
ball from falling in one's own territory. Wlienever the ball 
touches the fioor it counts against the side in whose territory 
it falls. The ball may be batted with the hand only and 
upward only. 

Keep Ball. Sides are chosen. The side having possession 
of the ball attempts to pass it about without letting the other 
side get possession of it. Tripping or catching hold of a 
player is not allowed. 

Drive Ball. This may be played as a kicking game with 
a football or as a batting game with a baseball. Two or 



PERIOD FOUR 173 

any multiple of two may play. In the batting game the sides 
are stationed at some distance apart. One takes the ball and 
bats it as far as possible toward the limit of his opponent's 
field, over which he wishes to drive the ball. His opponent 
or opponents catch or stop the ball as best they can. At the 
point at wliich it was caught or stopped it is batted back. 
The game continues until one side makes a goal by batting 
the ball over the limit of the opponent's field. The sides then 
change fields. In the kicking game the ball is punted back 
and fourth. 

Tipcat. The cat is a short piece of wood or broom handle, 
five or six inches in length. It is sharpened at both ends. 
One player stands within a circle, and with another stick or 
Imt of convenient size strikes the cat on the end, makmg it 
fiy into the air. Before it falls to the ground the batter 
knocks it as far as he can. If the cat falls withm the circle, 
the batter is out and another takes his place. If the batter 
makes a fair knock, he guesses how many bat lengths he has 
sent the cat, that number being added to his score. However, 
if his guess is too high, as shown upon measurement, he is 
out. The one having the highest score after a certain number 
of rounds wins. The game may be greatly varied. Some- 
times the batter measures the distance by jumps ; sometimes 
sides are chosen. In the latter case as many holes are made 
as there are players on a side. These holes are made equally 
distant apart and in the form of a circle. One side takes 
position, one player at each hole, the other side forming 
outside the circle. One player " tips " the cat from his hole 
and all run, the object being for each player to get to the 
next hole before the other side can I'eturn the cat between 
any two holes. If this is successfully done, the side at the 



174 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAIMES 

bat scores a run ; if not, the side is out. The side scoring 
the greatest number of runs wins. 

Quoits. Two stakes are driven into the ground at a con- 
venient pitching distance from each other. The quoits may be 
iron disks, horseshoes, or anything convenient. The players 
stand at one stake and pitch their quoits, two in number, at 
the other stake. The player whose quoit comes nearest the 
stake scores a point. If both his quoits are nearer than either 
of his opponent's, he scores two points. The player first scor- 
ing a certain number of points agreed upon wins. Any num- 
ber may play, but usually the number is two or four. 

Rhif/tos.^. Described on page 111. 

F((h(( (laha. Descrilied on page 110. 

Rinf) Ball. As many bases as there are players, less one, 
are arranged m a circle of convenient size. The bases may 
be of small stones, sticks, or anything to mark the loca- 
tion. A tennis ball or an indoor l)aseball is used. Some one 
throws the ball in the air. The player nearest whom it 
stops takes his place within the circle. The player who was 
nearest him on his right takes the ball and throws it at 
the player in the circle. If he fails to hit him, he must also 
take his place within the circle ; if he does liit him, all scat- 
ter. Meanwhile the player who was within the circle gets 
the ball, and as quickly as he has done so, cries, " Halt ! " 
All must stop instantly. He then throws the ball at some 
player who, if hit, must also take his place within the circle, 
the rest returning to their bases. The one who gets the ball 
throws it at the players within the circle, as before. The 
game continues until only one player is left outside the 
circle. He then throws the ball at tlie players, who try to 
hit him in return. He may then run back and forth at 



\ 



PERIOD FOUR 175 

will, but the others may nut leave the ch'cle. As soon as 
a pla}er is hit he is out of the game. If the player outside 
the circle is hit, the game begins over again. When all are 
out of the game a new game begins, the one outside the 
circle being declared the winner. 

Grace Hoops, or Graces. Each player has two sticks, round 
and smooth, slightly tapered, and three or four feet long. By 
means of these, hoops twelve or eighteen inches in diameter 
are tossed from one to another and caught upon the sticks. 
The game may be greatly varied and is a very graceful and 
valuable exercise. The sticks and hoops can easily be made 
by the children. The hoops may be shot at a stake fixed 
either vertically or horizontally, or through a larger hoop, as 
in the game of Belle Cycle. 

Wicket. This game bears the same relation to Cricket that 
Round Ball l)ears to Baseball. A wicket is improvised. One 
player is batter and the rest are distributed in the different 
positions. The batter is out when the wicket is down, the 
players moving up in order, as in Eoimd Ball. 

Shinney. This is a modification of Hockey or Polo. A 
field is marked off, according to convenience, with goal lines 
and side lines. The players are provided with sliinney sticks 
or hockeys. The object of the game is to drive the small 
wooden or hard rubber ball over the enemy's goal line. 

Ayiierican Football. Goal lines and side, or foul, lines are 
agreed upon. A large rubber ball is used.. The side that 
has tlie kick-off kicks the ball from the center of the field 
toward the enemy's goal. The ball may be kicked, batted 
forward, tossed or thrown backward, but only a kicked goal 
counts. There may be no tripping or holding of a player, 
but any player running with the ball may be jostled. The 



17G EDUCATION BY FLAYS AND GAMES 

ball may be run with, if it is held free from the body in one 
hand only. When a goal is kicked the sides change goals. 
When a foul is declared the ball is tossed upward by some 
player agreed upon at the point where the foul was made. 

Battle for the Banner. One side takes possession of a part 
of the pla}ground, preferably a slightly elevated portion, and 
plants a banner. The other side endeavors to get possession 
of it. 

Knights. Sides are chosen. The stronger half of each side 
are the steeds, the others are the knights. When all are 
mounted the signal is given and the opposing parties advance 
against each other, the riders trying to unseat their enemies. 
When a knight is off his horse he is out of the game. The 
side that unseats all its enemies wins. (This should be played 
only on soft ground or a grassplot.) 

Modifications of the most familiar group or team games 
are very common in this period. These games are well known 
to most boys, and need not be described here. When rules 
are desired they may be obtained from Spaulding's Athletic 
Library or from books of a similar nature. These games 
include Baseball, Cricket, Hockey, Polo, Basket Ball, Foot- 
ball, and Lacrosse. 

To the above may be added the following familiar games, 
which are common in this period : Tennis, Handljall, Ping- 
Pong, Tether-Ball, Tenpins, Pdngtoss, Quoits, Golf, Croquet, 
Bowling. 

Schoolroom games. A great many of the games described 
can be easily adapted to limited space, as the schoolroom, 
small gymnasium, or crowded playground. Many chase games 
and ball games can be played in the schoolroom, though of 
course a large playground is the ideal. To suggest how the 



PERIOD FOUR 



177 



standard games of children may be adapted, when necessary, 
to limited space, the following games are here described. 

Serpentine Race. A good racing game for a schoolroom 
is the following. Several Indian clubs are placed in a line 
with one of the aisles, and a convenient distance apart. The 
same is done m front of the corresponding aisle on the other 
side of the room. The children choose sides. One child 
fr(jm each side runs over the course mdicated by the teacher, 



ffl . 


> -..^ 


■■■•■■iii&i«JMi........kdK.... 


mm 


1 .^ ^ V#^ • 



OuTi>t)()u Basket Ball 



and between the clubs and l)ack again to the wall. Score is 
kept, each child who wins scoring a point for his side. If a 
club is knocked down, it must be replaced by the runner 
before going farther. The side scoring the most points wins. 
A Tag Game. Make a chalk mark at any convenient 
place on the jtloor. The tagger stands on that spot and 
calls some one by name, counting ten before he starts in 
pursuit. The one called must pass over the place marked 
before he returns to his seat. If tagged before regainmg his 
seat, he must be " it." 



178 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

It will readily be seeu how relay races, potato races, hop- 
ping races, games of tag, such as Drop the Handkerchief, 
Witch in the Jar, Hopping Bases, Stealing Sticks, King's 
Land, and many others, can he rather easily adapted to a 
schoolroom. 

A Ball Game. A game similar to Keep Ball may be played 
in the schoolroom. Sides are chosen, the players scattering 
in the aisles, each player paired off with an opponent. A 
soft ball or bean bag is used, the object of the game being to 
pass the ball al:)out among the players of one side without 
losing possession of it to the other side. 

Dodye Ball and Balloon Ball, described on page 172, are 
also good illustrations. 

Such games as Piingtoss, Faba Gaba, or Bean-Bag Board, 
Tenpins, Passing, School Ball, Dodge Ball, Volley Ball, and 
even Basket Ball can be adapted to a schoolroom; yet it 
nuist not be forgotten that too many restrictions spoil a 
game, and good sense nuist determine what games to attempt. 
Games are valuable largely in proportion to the degree in 
which they involve the whole child. To reduce basket ball 
to a game of passing bean bags down a line and tossing them 
into a basket at the end, is taking away the essentials of the 
game. So far as possible, these schoolroom games should in- 
volve the whole body as much as the corresponding play- 
ground games. 

A good illustration of the adaptation of a game to limited 
space by boys is seen in a game described by Mr. Culin. A 
game called Kick the Ball is really baseball played without 
batting. The ball is kicked from the home plate instead of 
batted. This economizes space very much, as it permits the 
fielders to play in much nearer the home plate than in the 



PERIOD FOUR 179 

case of baseball, and the bases may be nearer together. An- 
other game, Hit the Stick, played at the intersection of two 
streets, is almost identical with Kick the Ball, except that, 
instead of kicking a ball, a small wooden wdcket is knocked 
in the air. In this game the batter balances a stick, about 
three inches long by one wide, across the inner end of another 
stick some ten inches in length, which is laid so as to extend- 
about three fourths of its length beyond the edge of the curb. 
He then strikes the projecting end a sharp blow with another 




EUIJV pLAV(il{(>lNI>, I'koN IDliNCK 

stick about three feet in length, which he holds in his hands, 
so that the smallest stick is tossed in the air. The game pro- 
ceeds with slight variations from the game of Baseball. 

Miscellaneous games for physical development. These 
games involve mainly a trial of the control of the body, of 
strength, quickness, and skill. They are individualistic and 
highly euuilative. They include the following : 

Wrestling. Under proper restrictions wrestling is one of 
the most valuable sports for boys of this age. The best place 
for wrestling is on a grassplot. It should not be allowed on 
hard or stony ground. Some of the standard forms of wrest- 
ling are given on the following pages. 



180 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Side Hold. The wrestlers take hold, standmg side to side, 
each with one arm about the other's waist and the other arm 
extended in front, the hand clasping the opponent's. 

Back Hu(j. The wrestlers stand chest to chest, each with 
hands locked behind the other's back. 

Collar and Elbow. The wrestlers stand face to face, one 
•hand grasping the collar of the other's coat, the other hand 
clasping the opponent's elbow. 

Catch as Catch Can. This is a rough-and-tumble style, 
such restrictions being made as may Ite agreed upon. 

Hand Wrestle. The wrestlers stand with right foot ad- 
vanced, clasping right hands. The object is to make one's 
opponent move a foot from its position on the ground. This 
constitutes a throw. 

Indian Wrestle. The wrestlers lie upon their backs, side 
by side, with right arms locked, feet extending in opposite 
directions. The right feet are raised and lowered twice. At 
the third raising they lock heels together and each endeavors 
to bring his opponent's leg down to the ground, thereby 
turning him upon his face. 

Knocking off Hats. This is a kind of s})arring, the object 
being to knock off an opponent's hat. It is a good preliminary 
to boxing. 

Boxing. Under right restrictit)ns, Itoxing may wisely be 
introduced. Use loose, soft gloves. 

Dual Contests. 

1. Mark out a circle six feet in diameter. Two stand 
within the circle, clasping hands or wrists. Each endeavors 
to push his opponent from the circle. Pulling may be allowed 
if desired. Several circles may be drawn and sides cliosen. 
The side having the larger number of players left in the" 



PERIOD FOUR 181 

circles wins ; or the game may continue until only one player 
is left iu possession of a circle. 

2. The game may be varied hy drawing two parallel lines 
six or more feet apart. The sides stand within the lines, 
facing each other. At a signal each plaj'er endeavors to push 
])is opponent outside the lines. When a player succeeds in 
doing this both he and his opponent are out of the game. 
When all are out count is made to see which side had the 
most victories. 

3. A large circle is marked off. The players choose sides 
and all station themselves within the circle. Three minutes 
are given to play. Each player tries to force an opponent 
out of the circle. Wlien one is forced out he must remain 
out, but his opponent may now turn to help his mates. The 
side having most players in the circle at the end of three 
minutes wins. 

4. Two take hold of a stick and each tries to twist it from 
the other. 

Cochfight. A circle is drawn upon the floor. Two players 
squat within it and place a stick under their knees, the 
arms under the stick and the hands clasped in front of the 
knees. Each then endeavors to tip his opponent over. 

Pulling Sticks. Two sit upon the floor, toes against toes. 
A l)room handle is grasped by the players and at the signal 
each tries to pull the other up from the floor. 

T'wisting Sticks. Two grasp a broom handle high over their 
heads. At the word the stick must be brought down between 
them, thereby twisting within the hands of one of the players. 

Push Pole. Two stand within a small ring marked upon 
the floor, grasping a short pole. At the signal eacli attempts 
to force the other to step outside the ring. 



182 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Knuckle Down. Place the toes against a chalk line, and 
kneel down and rise again without help of the hands and 
without movmg the toes from the line. 

The Palm Sjrring. Stand at some distance from and facing 
the wall. Lean forward, supporting the body with the palm of 

the hand against the wall. 
Now spring back to place 
without moving the feet. 

Prostrate and Per2)endic- 
■H.lar. Fold the arms across 
the breast, he down on the 
back, and get up again 
without using the elbows 
or hands. 

The Finger Feat. Place 
the hands horizontally 
across the breast, the mid- 
dle fingers touching tips. 
Let some one attempt to 
draw the fingers apart by 
a steady pull. 

Trial of the Tliuml). 
This is similar to the Palm 
Spring, l)ut the thumb in- 
stead of the palm is placed 
against the wall. 
The Long Reach. Mark a line on the floor or ground. Toe 
this mark and with a piece of chalk or stick mark the floor ■ 
or ground as far as possible from the line, rising again to 
position without having moved the toes from the mark. In 
returning to position, the hand which has supported the 




Climbing 
Photograph by S. Weaver 



I 



PERIOD FOUR 



18^ 



1iody in stooping to make the mark must not l^e draAvn along 
tlie groiuid or placed a second time to the ground. 

The Trium])li. Place the hands beliind the Ijack, palms 
together, fingers pointing downward. The hands are now 
to be turned so that the fingers point upward, the change 
being made without taking the fingers apart. 

Dot and Garry Two. A stoops between B and C, passing 
ills right hand behind the left thigh of B, whose right hand 
he grasps, and his left hand 
l)ehind the right thigh of 
C, grasping his left hand. 
B and C place an arm 
aliout A's neck. A raises 
himself gradually, lifting B 
and C from the ground. 

Stooimig Stretch. Place 
the outer edge of the right 
foot against a Ime drawn 
upon the floor, also the left 
heel at a little distance 
behind the right. With a 

piece of chalk mark the floor as far away as possil:)le by 
stooping forward and passing the hand between the legs, 
regaining position again without removing the feet from the 
line or touching the floor with either hand. 

The Turnover. Place the toes of one foot against the wall 
and without moving the toes from the wall throw the other 
foot over the first, thus turning completely around. A short 
run may be taken before placing the toes against the wall. 

Tuinble-Down Dick. Tip a chair forward upon the floor, 
the back being up. Take hold at aliout the back of the seat, 




Homemade xVpparatus 



184 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAINIES 

and, balancing the body with the liands and elbows, lean 
forward and touch the head to the top of the chair witliout 
letting the chair tip to the lloor. 

Take a Chair from Under. Arrange three chairs in a 
line, and place the heels in one and the head in the other, 
the middle one being under the back. Now, sustaining the 
weight of the body by the heels and the head, take the middle 
chair from under you with your hands, without falling. 

Bread to Mouth. Measure the distance from the elbow to 
the end of the middle finger. ]\Iark that distance upon a 
stick. Grasp the stick with the right hand, the middle linger 
lieing directly over the mark on the stick. Keeping the head 
erect and the stick horizontal, with the elbow at the side, 
raise the left end of the stick to the mouth. 

Leajifrog. The players stand some distance apart, resting 
tlie liands upon the thighs and keeping the head bowed. The 
last one in the line runs and leaps over each player in succes- 
sion, placmg his hands upon the shoulders of the one whom he 
jumps oxer and spreading his legs to clear the body. When 
he has jumped all the other players he, in turn, "makes a 
back," and the last one now in the line takes his turn at jump- 
ing. The game may be greatly varied, the difficulty of the leap 
being gradually increased. The game may be played as a 
kind of race, two lines being formed and the jumpers racing 
down them. All the players of a line must jump all the 
other players. The side finishing first wms. 

Ttiinbling. An expert tumbler is needed to direct this 
sport. Eightly conducted it is a very valuable exercise. 

Balancing. Many balancing tricks will be of interest in 
this period, but difficult juggling can hardly be taken up 
before the age of fifteen or sixteen. Balancing may include 



i 



PERIOD FOUR 



185 



tricks willi sticks or poles, balancing on a linger, on the chin, 
nose, forehead ; balancing chairs and various objects ; sit- 
ting in a chair, the feet under a table or some object to 




Acrobats 

keep from falling backward, and balancing on the hind legs 
of the chair; climbing up a ladder ; walking on a barrel; and 
other exercises. 

Walking on a Tight BojJe or Wire. This is an excellent 
exercise and affords much pleasure, and is perfectly safe when 
the rope is suspended low. 



186 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Jumjnng. The best forms of this exercise include the 
Eunning Broad Jump, Standing Broad Jump (The Public 
Schools Athletic League sets a standard of six feet for boys 
under thirteen), Eunning High Jump, Standing High Jump, 
Backward Jump, Hop, Step, and Jump, Pole Jump, and 
Pole A'ault. 

P^dl Up, or Chinning the Bar. Grasp a limb or horizontal 
bar and pull the body up so that the chin comes on a level 
with the bar. The standard for boys under thirteen, as set 
by the Public Schools Athletic League, is four times. 

FiUting Shot. The sliot should not weigh over eight 
pounds for boys under thirteen. 

Miscellaneous intellectual games. These games involve 
mainly a trial of the mental powers, — attention, observation, 
memory, and judgment, — and are emulative. 

Throwing Light. Two of the players agree upon some 
subject and converse about it without mentioning it. The 
others try to guess from the conversation what the subject is. 
When one thinks he has guessed correctly he joins in the 
conversation. If it appears from his conversation that he has 
guessed incorrectly, he may be challenged and must whisper 
his guess in the ear of one of the players choosing the subject. 
If wrong, he must sit through the game with his handker- 
chief over his face, or until he can guess correctly. It is 
allowable to choose two words of the same sound but of 
different meanings, and to refer to either at pleasure, as, for 
illustration, " soul " and " sole." This game is easily adapted ■ 
to recreations in history and geography. 

Hoiv Do You Like It ? One guesses the object agreed upon 
by the rest, from answers given to the questions, " How do 
you like it ? " " When do you like it ? " " Where do you 



I 



PERIOD FOUR 187 

like it ? " It is allowable to use words of two distinct mean- 
ings, as " bell " and " belle." 

Acting Titles. Some of the players leave the room and 
fix upon some familiar book or story. They return and act 
out the title. If the title is correctly guessed, another group 
of children takes a turn. 

Hidden Proverbs. One player leaves the room while the 
others choose some proverb. One word of the proverb is 
assigned to each player. The first player returns and ques- 
tions each player in turn. The answer of each child must 
contain the word assigned to him. The first player must 
guess the proverb. 

Corn and Beans. A large number of cards, with questions 
in arithmetic, geography, liistory, or whatever you like, 
written upon them, are used. There is the same number of 
cards with answers. The leader reads the question. Whoever 
holds the answer must cry, " Corn ! " The others cry, 
" Beans ! " If one cries " Corn " correctly before any one 
cries " Beans," he scores a point. Corn and beans may be 
used as counters. This may be played with sides. 

/ Love My Love. The first player says, " I love my love 
with an A, because he is ," using some adjective begin- 
ning with the letter A. The second repeats what the first said 
and adds a new adjective. Thus the game continues until 
all the players have had a turn. Then a new letter is taken. 
This game may be greatly varied, and may be played with 
sides or without. It may be adapted to several different 
subjects of study. For example, each player may represent 
a traveler, the first saying, " I love Athens for its art " ; the 
second, " I love Barbary for its bananas " ; and so on, consider- 
able freedom being given in the order of the letters used and in 



188 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

the wording. See also the games mentioned on pages 124— 
lo2, some of which may l)e particularly well adapted for 
drill work in this period. 

Repeating Games. See the games described on pages 125 
and 126. 

Quotations. Familiar quotations are written neatly upon 
cards or heavy paper. The cards are drawn by the players. 
Each reads a quotation and names the author. Whoever names 
the author correctly retams the card. In case of failure the 
card is returned to the pack. The one having the most cards at 
the end of the game wins. This may be played with sides. 

Characters. One is chosen as guesser. The others choose 
some character wliom the guesser is unwittingly to represent. 
The players question him as thougli he were the character 
they have in mind, until he can name the person thought of. 

Judge and Jury. A judge and three jurymen are chosen. 
The other players name some person to be represented. The 
judge then questions each one as to dates, incidents, contem- 
poraries, etc., and each, when questioned, must answer just as 
though he were the person chosen. The jury decide whether 
the questions are correctly answered or not. Whoever misses 
is out of the game. This game may be played with sides. 

History. Each player writes the name of a person or 
country upon a piece of paper or card. These are shuffled 
and distributed. Each player in turn must rise and give a 
good account of the person or country written on the card 
which he happens to hold. 

Cluinps. Each side chooses a captain. Each captain sends 
a player out of the room. These two agree upon some object 
or person to be guessed by the rest of the players. They 
then return, and each sits_with the players of the opposing 



i\ 



PERIOD FOUR 189 

side. Each side, by askinj.; questions which may be answered 
by " Yes " or " No " or " I do not know," tries to find out the 
person or object thought of. The players first guessing cor- 
rectly clap their hands, and the captain chooses one player 
from the other side. Two other j)layers are then sent out, 
and the game continues as before. The side having the most 
players at the close of the game wins. 

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. This game is similar to 
Clumps, but answers are not confined to " Yes," " No," and 
" I do not know." The first question is, " Does it belong to 
the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom ? " 

Tioenty Questions. The players are divided into two parties, 
each with a captain. One side decides upon the thing to be 
guessed, the other asks the questions. All questions are asked 
by the captain after due deliberation by all the players of 
his side ; all answers are made by the captain of the other 
side after due consultation with all the players of his side. 
Only twenty questions are allowed to be asked in all. If the 
questioners can guess the answer correctly in one guess after 
the twenty questions are asked, they win ; if not, they lose. 

A good game may be played with cardboard letters such 
as are used in Logomachy. Each player draws a letter from 
the box. Then, before looking at the letter in his hand, the 
first player mentions some object or person to be named by 
the players, as a famous paintmg or a famous American 
statesman. He then quickly places his letter face up on the 
table. Whoever can first name an object or person conform- 
ing to the class given and beginning with the letter which 
happens to be turned up, keeps the letter as a counter in his 
score. The one taking the most letters wins. The game may 
be adapted to various school subjects, as history, geography, 



190 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

or literature. For example, it may be required that a line or 
verse of poetry which liegius with the letter drawn be given. 
Capping Verses. A player repeats a line of poetry or other 
(juotation. The next player repeats one beginning with the 
last letter of the previous quotation. This may be adapted 
to various school subjects. 

Acting Charades. Sides are chosen and each side in turn 
selects some word to be guessed by the other side. Usually 
the word is divided into two or more parts, and each part is 
acted out by the players. For example, if " Washington " is 
the word selected, it may be divided into " washing " and 
" ton." The act of washmg may be represented, and also ton, 
as in the act of weighing, or the word '• ton " may be used in 
tlie conversation of the actors. The game is capable of great 
range as to difficulty and originality. 

There are many other quiet games adapted to this period, 
which are more or less familiar. These are of much value 
and interest on rainy days, during the recess and the noon 
hour at school, and in the evening at home. 

Tit-tat-to. A diagram is made on the black- 
board, slate, or paper. One player marks with 
ciphers, the other with crosses. They play in 
turn, the object beiug to get three marks of a 
kind in a row. Whoever succeeds first wins. The winner 
cries, " Tit-tat-to, three men in row." 

A game is sometimes played with a circular diagram, sev- 
eral children taking part. Any number of divisions may be 
made in the circle. Each player in turn takes a pencil, and 
with eyes shut moves it about above the diagram, saying, 

Tit-tat-to, my first go, Stick one up, stick one down. 

Three jolly butchers all in a row. Stick one in the old man's ground. 









X 




X 





X 







PERIOD FOUR 



191 




He then puts the point of his pencil as best he can, with 
eyes still shut, on the diagram. Each player records the 
number of the space upon wliich the 
pencil falls, and that space is " scratched." 
The game ends as soon as one player suc- 
ceeds in placing his pencil in the center, 
or when all the spaces except the one in 
the center have been scratched. Some- 
times the game is said to go to the old 
man, if the center is not touched before all the other spaces 
have been taken. 

Another game is played with a square diagram. Checkers 
or counters are used and there are two players. Each in 
turn places a counter on the points where any two or more 
lines meet in the diagram. Whoever gets 
three in a r(.)W first wins. Of course this 
game could be played at the blackboard, 
or even on the ground, lines being 
scratched with a stick, and ciphers and 
crosses being used for counters. 

To these games may be added the fa- 
miliar one of Checkers, which children begin to play in a simple 
way in this period, although it strictly belongs to later years. 
The board and the checkers may easily be made by the 
children. The board or diagram consists of sixty-four equal 
squares, alternating black and white, and suggests a good 
exercise for a drawing lesson. A simpler game than Checkers, 
called Give- Away, may be played witli the board. 

Give-Away. The object in this game is to give away all 
one's checkers. The jumping and the taking of men follow 
the same rules as in Checkers. 




192 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 




Pyramid. In this game the checkers are arranged in the 
form of pyramids of ten checkers each. The object is to trans- 
fer one's pyramid to the position occupied by that of one's 

opponent at the beginning of the 
game. The same rules follow as 
in the above games, but checkers 
are not removed when jumped. 

Some other familiar games, 
which need not be described, are 
Dominoes (in great variety), Par- 
chesi, Authors, and various other 
simple card games. 
' Fox and Geese. This game is played on a diagram, as shown 
in the illustration. One player has seventeen pieces called the 
geese and one other called the fox. At the begiiming of the 
game the pieces are placed as shown in the figure, and are 
moved along the lines from point to point. The object is for 
the geese to pen up the fox so he cannot move, or for the fox 
to capture the geese. The fox may capture a goose by jumping 
over it, if the next space beyond 
is not occupied, as in the game of 
Checkers. The geese may advance 
and hem the fox in, endeavoring 
to keep each goose protected. 

Nine-Men's Morris. Two play- 
ers have nine men each. These 
are placed on the board in turn, 
the object being to form a row of 
three men, as in Tit-tat-to. When 
a player succeeds in this he may take off one of his opponent's 
men, but may not select one of three in a row, if there is any 




PERIOD FOUR 193 

other. When all nine men have been laid on the board they 
nia}' be moved along the lines from pomt to point, always in 
the endeavor to form a line of three. The player who succeeds 
in capturing all his opponent's men wins. See illustration at 
bottom of page 192. 

Card and Table Games. To these games also belong many 
familiar card and table games, such as Authors and Checkers. 
The game of Authors may be adapted in many ways to 
school suljjects. The Cincinnati Game Company publishes 
many games of this kind. ]\Iany exercises similar to those 
explained m Aiken's Methods of Mind Training are well 
adapted to stimulate emulation and experimentation of mental 
powers and therefore offer suggestions for games. 

Biddies, liiddles, conundrums, puzzles, particularly mechan- 
ical and geometrical puzzles, are of interest at this age, and 
may be used in a variety of ways. Many books and current 
numbers of juvenile papers furnish numerous suggestions. 

To these games also belong many games involving school 
subjects. 

Arithmetic. The arithmetical games of this period mi;st 
be based largely upon emulation and experimentation of 
mental powers. This is preeminently the period for drill in 
the fundamental operations and facts of arithmetic, and while 
the games must be more or less artificial they quicken inter- 
est and increase attention, materially aiding in the drill work. 
Some of the suggestive games for drill described on page 143 
may be adapted to this period. 

Arithmetical Standards. Select some standard of quickness 
in the fundamental operations. For example, in long division 
the standard might be two seconds for every iigure written. 
Thus, if 19,832 is to be divided by 74, the correct answer 



194 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



should be given in fifty seconds. In addition, subtraction, and 
multiplication one second for every figure written might 
perhaps be the standard. The standard should, of course, 
vary for different classes of children, and might be determined 
after some experimental trials. It should not be too high 
at first, however, and every child who has attained it in 




Volunteer Nature Work — A Schoolroom Corner 
Kindness of C. A. Putnam 

a formal test should receive some mark of recognition of his 
skill. There might be a minimum and a maximum standard. 

Arithmetical Races. Choose sides. When all are ready dis- 
close examples which have been concealed from sight. The 
side that has the larger number of correct answers within a 
given time wins. 

Dominoes, Parclicsi, Backgammon, Numher Lotto, and many 
other similar games may be mentioned ; also games of like 
nature published by The Cincinnati Game Company. 



PERIOD FOUR 



195 



Nature plays. Interest in pets, particularly cats and dogs, 
in exploring, fishing, hunting, nutting, and collecting is very 
keen at this period. These interests lie at the foundation of 
awakening love of nature, and furnish a kind and range of 
knowledge of great culture value and of uicalculable value to 
the student of science. The school aquarium, the cabinet, 




The Young Fisherman 



the back-yard or school-yard menagerie, and the individual 
collections furnish splendid opportunities for the teacher. 
For example, specimens of the different fishes and insects 
of the fresh-water streams and ponds of the town may be 
captured for the school aquarium or fish pond. The fish 
pond, aquarium, vivarium, developing cages, mounting boards 
for butterflies, fish nets, insect nets, etc., can be made by the 



196 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

boys and girls under the direction of the manual-training 
teacher or even alone ; also bird houses, dog houses, squirrel 
cages, dove pens, and the like. Collecting old bird nests in 
the fall is a good preparation for the making of bird houses 
in the early spring and for keeping a record of bird migration. 

In this period the collections of cliildren begin to take 
definite shape and permanency of interest, and their interest 
in such collections may well be utilized by the teacher of 
nature, geography, and history, particularly. The collection 
of insects and water animals mentioned above, and the collec- 
tion of stamps, minerals, arrowheads, flowers, ferns, woods, 
are all in point. 

Camping out is a passion at this time, and luay bring its 
golden opportunities in many lines. For further hints on 
woodcraft see The Birch- Bark Roll and Two Little Savages, 
by Ernest Thompson Seton. Nut gathermg, berrying, fishing, 
pet keeping, and gardening begin to take on a practical form 
and are frequently associated with interest in barter, trade, 
and money values. (The money interest, however, is greater 
at the end of this period and in the next period.) 

Gardening. Interest in gardening now centers sufficiently 
upon the product to make it of practical value. The dia- 
gram of the gardens at the Worcester County Truant School, 
shown on the opposite page, is very suggestive for a school 
garden. 

Geography. The nature interests tend to furnish knowl- 
edge of many facts which are of fundamental importance to 
the student of geography, and the teacher should take advan- 
tage of many activities already suggested. Emulation and 
experimentation of mental powers, previously mentioned, will 
lend zest to the work m geography, if wisely and skillfully 



PERIOD FOUR 



197 



appropriated by the teacher. Collections, especially of stamps 
and of postmarks, arrowheads, and the like, play directly into 
the hands of the geography teacher and the liistory teacher. 



L 


esson 1 




«(. 


10 




fcC 


11 




11 


3 




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9 



12% 



13 

8 
7 
6 
5 
4 
13 
14 



North 
20 feet 



.1.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I. 



Diagram of a Bovs' Garden 



<4 



B 2i 

G 2k' 

D 2' 

E 2' 

F 3' 

G 3' 

H 2' 



I 


2' 


J 




K 




L 




M 




N 




P 





A, potatoes; B, corn; C, beans; D, peas; E, cabbage plants, muskmelon, 
watermelon ; F, cucumbers ; //, tomato plants, summer squash ; /, 
Swiss chard, spinach; J, radish; K, beets; L, lettuce; M, onion 
sets ; N, asters, pinks ; 0, pausies, verbenas 

Collecting raw materials and manufactured products, such as 
those classed under silkworm, honeybee, corn, cotton, coal, and 
many others, and mounting them on cardboard, or otherwise, 



198 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

should be encouraged. Sand-pile play is often continued into 
this period (see page 147). 

Games. The following are good games for occasional use. 

1. Sides are chosen. The leader of one side begins by 
calling out the name of some city beginning with A. Before 
ten can be counted the leader on the other side must name 
another city begmning with A. The second player on the 
first side then takes up the game, and so on. Whoever misses 
is put out of the game. The side having most players left at 
the end of the game wins. 

2. The leader of one side calls out any letter, and says, 
" Sea," or" Bay," or " Mountain," or other geographical subject. 
The leader on the other side answers and calls out in turn. 
The game proceeds similarly to the first game. 

3. Geographical lists are written, first beginning with A, 
then B, and so on. One minute is allowed for each letter. 
Lists are corrected and scores compared. 

Adventurers. One is chosen adventurer and is assigned 
a place from which he must start. He must describe his 
journey, the appearance of the country, the people, cities, 
occupations, etc. 

Conveyances. Each selects a route for a journey. Then, in 
turn, each describes his conveyances, how he crossed this lake, 
that mountain, etc. 

Traveler. One is chosen traveler. He is about to visit a 
country which the others are supposed to have seen. He asks 
each player any question he may wish in regard to the country 

History. Each writes the name of a country upon a sli 
of paper. These are shuflfled and drawTi. Each must give a 
oral or a written description or brief history of the country 
which falls to him. 



I 



i 



PERIOD FOUR 199 

Merchants. Each player in turn impersonates a merchant 
from some foreign country. The others must guess what 
each merchant has to sell. 

RciKatinuj Games. The games described on pages 125 and 
126 may be adapted to the geography work of this period. 

Coini and Bearis. See page 187. 

History. Among the liistory games ma}^ be mentioned 
the following: 

Famous Men. The children make up a pack of cards 
similar in form to those used in the game of Authors, upon 




Hunting Specimens for the Aquarium 
Photograph by G. E. Mounts 

which are written the names of famous men under various 
headings, as generals, statesmen, discoverers, inventors. The 
game is played similarly to the game of Authors. 

Famous Nmnhei's. Numbers are written upon cards or 
slips of paper. These are drawn and the players tell for what 



200 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

the number is famous. For example, 13 may he said to be 
famous because of the thirteen American colonies. 

P's and Q's. One player gives the name of some histor- 
ical character, the next names the place of birth or gives 
some other name or a date associated with his life, and so on. 
The game may be played with sides, the play passing from 
one side to the other. An error in statement or failure to 
give a fact puts the player out of the game, as in a spell- 
ing match. 

Assumed Characters. Each player impersonates some char- 
acter of whom he lias read, and relates his history. 

Who was He ? One begins by giving a brief sketch of 
some historical character, and then suddenly asks, " Who 
was he ? " The first one to answer scores a point and gives 
another sketch. The game may be played with sides. 

Historical Tableaux. Some of the players group them- 
selves and assume attitudes in representation of some event 
of history. The others guess the subject of the tableau. 

Historical Dramas. The children write out and act out 
simple plays based on their history reading. This can be 
very successfully done by children of this age. 

Historical Pictures. Each player draws a sketch illustrating 
some historical event, the subject of which is to be guessed 
by the others. 

Characters. One player leaves the room. The rest agree 
upon some character and summon the player back. They then 
question him as though he were the person thought of. He 
must determine from their questions whom he is supposed* 
to represent. The player asking the question which gives 
him the final cue to the right name of the character must be 
the next to leave the room. 



PERIOD FOUR ' 201 

Language, reading, spelling. The story interest still holds 
a vital relation to language development in this period. This 
interest is the best ally of the teacher in the teaching of 
language. Stories of adventure are among the best for selec- 
tion. The following plays and games are useful. . 

Anecdotes. The children relate in turn short stories or 
anecdotes, which may be confined at one time to incidents in 
the lives of noted men ; at another, to examples of heroism ; 
at another, to witty answers; and so on. 

Stories. This is a game similar to the preceding, the stories 
being much longer. They should be either original or repro- 
ductions of stories heard or read. 

Printing Press. The prmting press is very valuable at 
this time. A play printing office has been very successfully 
conducted by boys of this age in summer-school work, one 
of the products of the office being a paper now in its fifth 
volume. 

Impromptu Neivspaper. Each player is assigned some part 
of a paper to write, as the name of the paper, news items, 
anecdote, advertisement, memory gem, etc. Only a brief time 
should be allowed for writing. 

Continued Stories. One begins an original story. After 
being well started he stops, and the next must take up the 
thread of the story and continue for a time, then leave it to 
the next ; and so on. 

Novels. This is similar to Continued Stories, except that 
each writes his part. 

T'wo-Minute Conversations. The players are paired off. 
Topics are written upon slips of paper and drawn by one of 
each pair. Each couple must rise and converse with anima- 
tion for two minutes upon the subject drawn. 



VCT.. 4. 



THE STAR. 

JAN 19, 1907 

PUBLISHED BY THE 







PRINTING CO 

NORTH V/AYNc VAINE. 
Published Hikst and THfkd Saiuidays of cad) 
unr.Lli. Single copies 2 cciits. Tcr year 25 
ccutB. If by mail fifty cents Dcr vcar. 



Paper started by a Buy of Thirteen 



202 



PERIOD FOUR 203 

Correspondence between Schools. This may be carried on by 
the children of two widely separated schools. 

Letters from Abroad. Children select countries to visit. 
They write letters periodically, relating experiences in their 
supposed travels. Genuine letters from abroad are received 
by pupils in certain high schools from pupils in foreign 
schools, the letters usually being written half in one's own 
language and half in the correspondent's. 

Adverbs. An adverb is chosen, unknown to one of the 
players. This player must question the others on a certain 
subject and infer the adverb chosen from the manner in 
which his questions are answered. 

Adjectives. A somewhat similar game may be devised, 
using adjectives instead of adverbs. 

Mosaics. A list of words is given, and a story is written 
containing these words in the original order. 

Prohibitions. Questions are asked on some subject, but 
certain parts of speech are prohibited in the answers. 

Post Ojfice. A school post oftlce is established witli the 
teacher in charge. 

Debates. Before the close of this period there is some 
interest in simple discussions and debates. 

Dramatics. The dramatic interest should be utilized iu 
work in literature. In the reading classes different children 
may take the parts of different characters. Simple drama- 
tizations of selections read should occasionally be attempted. 

Spelling Games. The spelling matches and spelling games 
described on pages 150-153 may be adapted for this period 
by increasing the difficulties and standards. 

Drawing plays. Drawing and painting should involve, as 
in the previous period, representations of the human figure 



204 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

and of animals, with emphasis upon action. More attention 
should be given to details. Stories should be illustrated, also 
poems and liistorical iucidents, in connection with school 
work. The painting of flowers, of doll dresses, hats, and the 
like, the children originating designs for the same, should 
be encouraged. The embellishing of hand work by painting, 
carving, or burning, may be begun ; passepartout work should 
also be attempted. Picture collections are of value. Interest 
wUl be keen in silhouettes and shadow pictures. Games like 
Historical Pictures, mentioned on page 200, will be profitable. 
Music plays. The kindersymphonie orchestra may be con- 
tinued. The playing of musical instruments should be begun, 
and ample opportunity given for hearing good music. Much 
should be made of singing. The traditional singing games 
with their simple dances continue to be of great interest 
and value. 



PEEIOD FIVE (Ages 13-15) 

The essential characteristics of this period are as follows : 
It is a period of most rapid bodily growth. There is an 
increase in the size of the heart, relative to the size of 
the blood vessels, and hence an increase in blood pressure. 
There is also a marked increase in lung and chest capacity, 
in strength of hand, and in control of accessory muscles. 




" Doing Stumps " 
Photograph by C. S. Moore 

It is a period of greatest tendency to nervous disorders. 
There is an accelerated rate of development of association 
fibers in the brain. There is a rapid development of the 
sexual organs, and the sexes become to a degree mutually 
repellant. Sex differences in game interests become promi- 
nent. It is a time of awkwardness, periodic laziness, and emo- 
tional instability, with tendency to reverie, self-consciousness, 

205 



206 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



and also to self-assertion and dreams of greatness. The tend- 
ency to imitation is renewed, and there is an increased sus- 
ceptibility to influences of adult ideals and example, and to 
religious influence. It is a period also when there is the 
greatest liability to incorrigibility, misdemeanor, and crime. 
There is a tendency to affectation and mannerisms. It is a 




An ULTHouU Liv.MNASUM 



time of sensitiveness to ridicule, of keen sense of humor, and 
tendency to freakishness and pranks. There is frequently a 
desire to show off and a tendency to the use of slang. It is 
a period of development of the powers of organization ; hence 
the tendency to form rudimentary organizations, gangs, and 
teams. There is an interest in giving and taking stumps. 
Pugnacity and anger increase. There is often a desire to 



PERIOD FIVE 



207 



leave home, yet a susceptibility to homesickness. Imagina- 
tion, sympathy, memory, and power of reasoning are increas- 
ing. At this time culminates mterest in reading. There is 
great interest in nature, especially in the training of animals. 
There is more mterest in the practical, and a better sense of 
the value and right 
use of money. The 
collection interest 
gains in definiteness 
and permanency. 
Interest in language 
puzzles and arithmet- 
ical puzzles is at its 
height. There is an 
increase of interest 
in rhythm and con- 
certed action. There 
is now a genuine his- 
toric interest ; also a 
dramatic interest, 
with tendency toward 
the vaudeville type. 
There is great love 
of adventure, great 
admiration for physical prowess, hero worship, and love of 
hunting and camping. The game interest centers more and 
more in cooperative and competitive games, and the circle of 
favorite games constantly narrows. 

Apparatus. This should include an outdoor gymnasium 
(the boys with the aid of blacksmith and carpenter can pro- 
vide apparatus for such gymnasium, if it is not possible to 




A Boy's Puppkt Thkatkr — One Scene 
FROM Uncle Tom's Cabin 

Everything planned, constructed, and executed 
by a boy of thirteen 



208 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



buy apparatus of regular manufacturers), runuing track, jump- 
ing standards, apparatus for vaulting, hurdles, 8-pound shot, 
baseball and football field, tennis court, bowling green, cro- 
quet sets, basket-ball court, skating rink, indoor gymnasium, 
swimming pool, homemade boats, rowboats, sailboats, guns, 
fishing tackle ; workshop ; mechanical and electrical toys ; 
den or clubhouse ; garden ; pets ; menagerie, vivarium, aqua- 
rium, nature collections; puppet theater; musical instruments ; 
outfit of some sort for painting, modeling, carving, or burn- 
ing ; material for sewing, beadwork, or eml jroidery. 

Transitional games. The following transitional games may 
be selected from the list given under Period Four : Prisoners' 
Base, Hill Dill, Bound Hands, Relievo, Day and Night, Cross 




Roof Playground 

Tag, Follow Tag, Hang Tag, Hunting Tag, Racing Games, 
Duck on a Rock, Rolly-Pooly, Hare and Hound. 

Competitive games and contests. The following competi- 
tive games and contests, generally cooperative, are of special 
interest at this period and are adapted to the peculiar physical 



PERIOD FIVE 



209 



and mental needs of this time. They involve great physical 
activity and furnish relief for the high blood pressure and 
escape from morbid tendencies and dangers of this age. They 
are particularly adapted to further the development of large 



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Hockey on a Roof Playground 

muscle areas, to continue the development of the finer motor 
adjustments, to relate individual motor activity to a social 
group, and to develop courage, staying power, and social 
consciousness. 

Many of the games will be continued from the previous 
period and need not be described again. Others are familiar to 
all boys and need not be described here. The rides governing 
such games may be readily obtained. 

A brief list of such familiar games contams the following : 
Baseball, Football, Basket Ball, American Football, Associa- 
tion Football, Polo, Hockey, Cricket, Keep Ball, Lacrosse, 
Golf, Croquet, Belle Cycle, Tennis, Handball, Water Polo, 
Lawn Bowis, Tether Tennis, Lawn Hockey, Volley Ball, Golf 
Croquet, Hand Tennis, Garden Hockey, Eing Hockey, Parlor 
Hockey, Billiards, Pool, Bowling. 



210 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Besides the games already mentioned, many old games have 
been recast and a few new ones invented by teachers of 
physical traming, which are of special interest at this period. 
Most of these have been adapted for limited space, as in the 
gynmasium. They have appeared in such periodicals as Mind 
and Body, American Physical Education Review, and Era, 
and many have been compiled in convenient and inexpensive 
books by E. H. Arnold, A. M. Chesley, W. C. Schaefer, and 
others. Some of tlie most popular of these games are men- 
tioned below. 

Medicine Ball. Two or more teams of any convenient 
number of players may be chosen. Each team stands in Ime 
with a distance of several feet between the members. The 
game starts at a given signal, and each player at the head 
of a line passes a medicine ball backward between his legs 
to the next player, who passes it on in a like manner to the 
next, and so on down the line. When the last player receives 
the ball he runs with it to the head of tlie line, — the other 
players meanwhile moving back one space, — and passes it 
back, as in the first instance. The game continues until the 
one who stood originally at the head of his line returns again 
to the head, thereby scoring a point for his side. Sometimes 
a basket ball is used, and the last player is required to throw 
it into the basket. 

Mount Ball. This is a modification of the ancient game 
of Knights. Half of the players are ponies and the other half 
are riders. The ponies are mounted and form a circle, while 
the riders pass a ball about among themselves, the ponies en- 
deavoring meanwhile to unseat their riders. When a failure 
to catch the ball is made all the riders dismount and run, 
while the pony whose rider failed to make the catch runs 



PERIOD FIVE 211 

and gets the ball and immediately cries, " Halt ! " The riders 
must then stand in place while the pony throws the ball at 
one of them. The ball may be dodged, but the rider must 
not change his place. If the rider is hit, the ponies become 
riders and the riders ponies. If the thrower fails to hit, the 
game is resumed as before. 

Scrimmage Ball. A convenient court is marked out with 
a goal line at each end. Half are goal defenders and half 
are forwards. The players of each side are stationed within 
their goal lines. At a signal the forwards of each side rush 
forward and endeavor to drive the ball, which is placed at 
the center of the court, across the enemy's goal line. Only 
pushing or scrimmaging the ball with the hand is allowed. 
The goal defenders may place only one foot over the goal 
line. Eough play, hitting the ball when down, advancing the 
ball in any way except by pushing or scrimmaging, blocking 
the ball except with one hand, and the like, are fouls. A foul 
entitles the offended side to try for a goal. One forward 
tosses up the ball and another forward attempts to bat it 
across the enemy's goal line. The offending side, from the 
goal line, may try to knock the ball back into the field. 
Forwards and defenders change places after each goal. 

Corner Keep Ball. This is a modification of Keep Ball. A 
convenient court, perhaps thirty feet long and twenty feet 
wide, is marked off, a straight line dividing it in halves. At 
each corner is a base. Each side takes position in its half of the 
field, placing a player in each of the two bases in the corners of 
the enemy's field. The game consists in passing the ball back 
and forth to the basemen, while the enemy attempt to inter- 
cept it and pass it to their own basemen. Players must keep 
in their own territory, but may otherwise move about at will. 



212 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Captain Ball. This game is similar to Corner Ball, but 
has five bases arranged along the outer boundaries, a center 
base in each half of the field, and a narrow neutral space 
between the halves. The captain of each side is stationed in 
the central base, a player in each of the other bases, and four 
players or runners in the enemy's field. The game consists m 
passing the ball, which is put m play in the neutral territory, 
from the runners to the basemen, and then to the captain. 
The other side attempts to get possession of the ball and pass 
it to its own basemen and captain. Eunners may not pass 
beyond the neutral space nor may they pass the ball directly 
to the captain. Every time the ball is passed successfully to 
the captain a point is scored for that side. The ball is then 
put in play again as in the beginning. The number of players 
and bases may be varied. 

Siege. One side takes possession of a part of the play- 
ground, as in Battle for the Banner, arranging players as 
seems best. The other side makes an attack and endeavors, 
by carrying, pushing, or pulling, to take as many prisoners as 
possible and place them outside the field. The side having 
possession of the field endeavors to take prisoners and place 
them in a prison marked off within their territory. Prisoners 
may not return to fight. A third player may not interfere 
with two who are struggling. 

Babylonian. This is a kind of Drive Ball. The players 
of each side form a line, clasping each other about the waist, 
and endeavor to drive a medicine ball across the enemy's 
goal by using the feet only. 

Peg Driving. All the players have sticks. A hole is made 
in the ground and a basket ball is placed in it. In a circle 
about the ball are made small holes, one less than the number 



PERIOD FIVE 213 

of players. The game begins by all placing their sticks under 
the basket ball, and raising it out of its hole, each one then 
hastening to place the end of his stick in one of the small holes. 
The player who does not succeed in getting a hole tries to roll 
the large ball back into its hole, the others trying to prevent 
him, while he, meantime, watches for a chance to get his stick 
into one of the small holes. Wlioever is left without a hole for 
his stick must try to roll the basket ball into its hole. When 
a player is successful in this the game starts over agam. 

Volley Ball. A net or a neutral space divides the field into 
two equal parts. A light ball is served by one of the players 
from the back line of his court by tossing it up and batting 
it with the hand over the net into the opponents' field. The 
opponents endeavor to bat the ball back without letting it 
touch the floor or ground. The ball is batted back and forth 
in this manner until a miss is made, this counting a point for 
the other side. The player missing then serves the ball as at 
the beginning of the game. 

Newcomh. In this game the court is divided in the center 
by a line. At a distance of about seven feet from this line, 
on each side, another line is drawn. The space withm these 
lines is neutral, and back of them on either side the opposing 
players are stationed. The object of the game is to throw the 
ball back and forth across the neutral space without letting 
it touch the groimd. The ball is put in play by a referee 
from the middle of the neutral ground, two players being 
selected to try for possession, after which no player may enter 
the neutral space while the ball is in play. If the ball falls 
outside the court or in the neutral ground, it must be again 
put in play as at first. When the ball touches ground within 
the court it counts a goal against the side letting it fall. 



214 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Test Alettlc. The sides are stationed at some distance apart. 
One calls out the name of an opposing player and the two 
advance to the middle ground, the first holding his hands 
outstretched. The challenged player strikes the other on the 
palm with his hand, whereupon the challenger must escape 
by running to his place or he must attempt to overpower his 
opponent by holding him down. Other players may advance 
to help their mates, but not more than four pairs should be 
engaged at one time. When a player is overpowered a halt 
is called, the players returning to their respective sides of 
the field, and the prisoner going to prison. 

Dual Contests and Wrestling. These were described ui the 
preceding period. 

Boxing. Mr. Hill's Experiment with Pugihsm is very sug- 
gestive. He taught boxing to a class of twenty boys, ap- 
parently avoiding the evils of pugilism, and a noticeable 
physical, mental, and moral gain was made. The boys were 
paired judiciously and all boxed at once. The following rigid 
rules were followed : no one shall strike a blow until the bell 
strikes one ; all sparring must instantly cease at two strokes 
of the bell ; attention must be centered on instructor durmg 
intervals ; gloves must be put into boxes immediately at three 
strokes of the bell. The first eight lessons were as follows : 
(1) position ; (2) offense, — straight lead with left ; defense, — 
step back in position ; (3) straight lead with left ; guard with 
right and counter with left ; (4) swing with left ; guard with 
right and counter on body with left ; (5) swing with right ; 
guard with left and counter with right ; (6) feint with left and 
lead right to jaw ; guard with right and left ; (7) lead with 
left ; move head to left and cross counter with right ; (8) lead 
with left ; side step, and cross counter with right. 



1. 





%:^3i 








Eight Lessons in Boxing 
Kindness of D. S. Hill 



215 



216 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

There resulted a new bond of friendship between teacher 
and pupils. Timid boys developed obvious self-confidence 
and strength. Muscular development of shoulders, arms, and 
neck became evident. There was an increase in agUity and 
grace of movement. Coordination of eye and arm and abihty 
to use two arms at once were improved. " Bullyish " boys 
were tamed. Wholesome respect and acknowledgment of 
what the other fellow could do were engendered, together 
with consciousness of the power of self-defense. Interest in 
personal hygiene was awakened. General improvement in 
class work was noticeable, in some cases remarkalile. One 
l)oy, deficient in studies and under probation for insolence, 
became a mainstay of discipline and a satisfactory scholar. 

Miscellaneous games for physical development. Among 
the games of this period involving trial of control, strength, 
quickness, and skill may be mentioned the following : 

Athletic Events} These include the 50-yard dash (standard, 
14 seconds); 220-yard dash ; 440-yard dash ; 880-yard run ; 
120-yard hurdles (10 hurdles, each 3 ft. 6 in. in height); 220- 
yard hurdles (hurdles, 2 ft. 6 in. in height) ; 440-yard relay 
race; 880-yard relay race; running broad jump; standing 
broad jump (standard, 6 ft. 6 in.) ; running high jump ; pole 
jump; pole vault; putting 8-pound shot; hop, step, and jump; 
Pull up, or Chinning the Bar (standard, 6 times). 

Swimming. All boys and girls should be taught to swim 
before the close of this period. Fancy swimmmg may now 
be begun, also diving and swimming games. 

Much value now lies in moderate rowing, canoeing, sailing, 

bicychng, and tramping; also in the winter sports such as] 

coasting, skating, snowshoeing, skeeing, and the like. 

1 See Official Handbook of the Public Schools Athletic League, Ameri- 
can Sports Publishing Company, New York. 



PERIOD FIVE 



217 



Mention should also be made of the value of such exercises 
as tumbling, balancing, tight-rope or wire walking, juggling, 
and the like. 

Miscellaneous intellectual games. Among the games of 
this period mvolving trial of the mental powers, — attention, 
observation, memory, imagination, and judgment, — should be 
included games previously described under this class, such as 
Charades ; History Games ; Historical Tableaux ; Illustrated 




Putting 8-Pound Shot 

Proverbs ; Historical Pictures ; Illustrated Ballads ; Synthe- 
sis ; Who was He ; Clumps ; Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral ; 
Twenty Questions ; also such games as Checkers, Chess, 
Dominoes, Backgammon, Parchesi, Halma, Authors, Wliist, 
and other card and table games. Here also may be men- 
tioned language puzzles, conundrums, and arithmetical puzzles. 
Teakettle. One player leaves the room while the rest fix 
upon some word, preferably a word of two or more meanings, 
as, for example, "hail," "hale." The player is then recalled and 



218 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

asks questions of each. Every answer must contain the word 
thought of, in one of its meanings, but instead of speaking the 
word, " teakettle " is substituted for it. From the answers 
the player must guess the word thought of. 

Parlor Magic. The trick is to tell who has a given object. 
One leaves the room. Some object previously agreed upon is 
given into the possession of one of the players. The player 
who left the room, and who, with the exception of his accom- 
plice, is the only one in the secret, returns and carefully looks 
at all the players. Meantime the accomplice places his hands 
in the same position in which the person who has the object 
happens to hold his hands. From tliat the player takes his 
cue and names the person who has tlie object. If alertness 
and care are exercised, the rest of the players may be greatly 
mystified for a time. 

To Tell an Object Thought Of. The accomplice has a cane 
in his hand and goes through mysterious motions, talking non- 
sense and rapping his cane on the floor. In this way he spells 
out the name of the object. The third word of each sentence 
begins with the consonant desired for spelling tlie name of the 
object thought of. The vowels are given by raps of the cane, 
— one for a, two for e, three for ^, four for o, and five for u. 

A simpler but more easily detected method is the follow- 
ing. The accomplice asks such questions as " Is it a book ? " 
"Is it a clock?" etc., to which the player answers No in 
every case, until the accomplice asks a question containing 
the name of something previously agreed upon, — say, any- 
thing witli four legs. The next question to that will contain 
the word thought of and will be answered by Yes. 

To Tell a Number Thought Of. The one who is to tell 
the number thought of places his hands upon the cheeks of 



PERIOD FIVE 219 

the accomplice, who tliinks hard. Meantime he bites gently, 
the mind reader counting the movements of the cheek muscles. 
Hundreds, tens, and units may be told by pausing after each 
series and then beginning again. For example, 234 could be 
signaled as foUows : two bites, pause ; three bites, pause ; four 
bites, final pause. 

My Next-Boor Neighbor. The uninitiated leave the room. 
Those who remain are supposed to select some player whose 
name must be guessed by each of the absent players on their 
return. The player cliosen is each player's left-hand neigh- 
bor. One of the absent players is then brought in and allowed 
to ask a question of each player in turn. Since the one thought 
of (always the left-hand neighbor of the one answering) changes 
with every new question, the answers are very puzzhng. 

Sleight of Hand. Interest in sleight of hand is keen at 
this time and should be utilized in connection with the study 
of physics. Many good elementary manuals are available. 

Arithmetic. Arithmetical and geometrical puzzles may be 
used in connection with school work in arithmetic ; also 
some of the arithmetical games mentioned in the previous 
period. The arithmetical standards may increase in difficulty 
and may be made to involve algebra and geometry. Some 
of Aiken's methods of mind training will be found very 
useful here. 

Language. This is the period of keenest verbal memory. 
There is a natural interest in language learning, and interest 
in reading is also at its height. These facts should be taken 
advantage of m school work. The dramatic interest may be 
utilized in the study of literature. Some of the games of the 
previous period, described on pages 201-203, may be selected 
and adapted for this period. The interest in printing papers, 



220 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

in debates, biography, and history may be utilized as sug- 
gested in the previous period. 

History. TMs is the period of awakening historic sense 
and of interest in history proper. The use of original sources 
may well begin here. Note other suggestions made on pages 
190-200. 

Drawing and art. The awakening of sentimental love of 
nature and of greater appreciation of beauty in nature and art 




Types of Volunteer Nature Work 
Kindness of C. A. Putnam 

makes the time favorable for the right study of these sub- 
jects and lends interest to nature sketching. The interest in 
the objects constructed tends to increase interest in art in con- 
nection with the constructive interest. Carving and pyrog- 
raphy correlate with manual training in the embellishment 
of cabinet pieces, toys, clubhouses, etc. Interest in history 
tends to increase interest in the illustration of story and 
narrative, as suggested under History and Drawing, pages 
200 and 203. 



PERIOD FIVE 



221 



Music. Interest in organization tends to associate the 
musical interest with musical clubs, particularly those of 
banjo and mandolin. Tliis tendency is more generally mani- 
fested, however, in the case of older boys and girls, who have 
sufficient organizing ability to carry on a club. 

Nature study. The exploring, fishing, collecting, and 
kindred interests of the previous period continue. These 




Photograph by Mrs. E. E. Trumbull 

activities are more definite in method, and the element of use 
is prominent. Sentimental love of nature and appreciation of 
its beauty lend interest to certain types of nature work. The 
camping and hunting interests furnish an adequate motive for 
genuine woodcraft. The training of animals and the rearing 
of pets should be encouraged. The money interest, sometimes 
identified with the keeping and training of animals, may be 
recognized. Nature collections should be pursued according 



222 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

to individual tastes, and may include such as the following : 
flowers for preservation and transplanting ; nursery of native 
trees and shrubs; minerals, arrowheads, and other Indian 
relics; abandoned bird nests; vivarium for snakes and toads; 
nests of ants and other insects ; developing cages for cater- 
pillars; aquarium for water animals and insects; menagerie 
for native ground animals, squirrels, and the like; butterflies 
and other msects and bugs; flower calendar; bird calendar. 
Gardening may be undertaken on an ambitious scale, and 
.should be conducted as in the previous period. 

Manual training. The following list is suggestive of the 
types of constructive interests of this period : clubhouse, 
camp ; workshop ; prmting shop ; dark room ; outdoor gym- 
nasium ; canoe, flatboat, house boat, sails ; dog house ; pigeon 
pen; back-yard menagerie, zoo ; aquarium, fish pond ; fish and 
insect nets ; cages ; traps ; taxidermy ; fishing tackle and hunt- 
ing implements ; bird houses, bird cages ; box kites ; electrical 
and mechanical toys, machinery; back-yard roUway, tobog- 
gan slide ; circus ; household utensils, and furniture for club- 
houses, camps, and boy's room ; cabinet making, clocks, desks, 
tables ; decorating, painting, carving, modeling; sewing ; weav- 
ing ; knitting ; fancy work, embroidery ; designing and making 
doll dresses, millinery ; modeling ; carving ; burnt-wood work ; 
passepartout ; cooking. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



PERIODS OF GROWTH 

Bryan, E. B. Nascent Stages and their Pedagogical Significance. 
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BuRK, F. L. From Fundamental to Accessory in the Develoiament 
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BuRNHAM, W. H. Education from the Genetic Point of View. 
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BuRNHAM, W. H. Hygiene of the Kindergarten Child. Proceedings 
of the National Educational Association (1904), pp. 416-422. 

BuRNHAM, W. H. Suggestions from the Psychology of Adolescence. 
School Review (1897), V, 652-665. 

Chamberlain, A. F. The Child. W.Scott, London, 1903. 498 pages. 
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Christopher, W. S. Three Crises in Child Life. Child-Study 
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Clouston, T. S. The Neuroses of Development. Simpkin, London, 
1891. 138 pages. 

GuiLLET, Cephas. Recapitulation and Education. Pedagogical Sem- 
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GuLicK, L. H. Some Psychical Aspects of Muscular Exercise. Pop- 
ular Science Monthly (1898), LIII, 793-805. 

Hall, G. S. Adolescence. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1904. 
2 volumes. 

Hartwell, E. M. Physical Training, its Function and Place in 
Education. American Physical Educational Review (1897), II, 
133-151. 

223 



224 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 

Hutchinson, Woods. The Growth of the Child Mind. Educational 

Times (1899), LII, 219-220. 
King, Irving. The Psychology of Child Development. University 

Press, Chicago, 1903. 265 pages. 
Lancaster, E. G. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence. 

Pedagogical Seminary (July, 1897), V, 61-128. 
Tannkr, a. E. The Child, his Thinking, Feeling, and Doing. 

Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1904. 430 pages. 



MEANING OF PLAY 

Chamberlain, A. F. The Child. W. Scott, London, 1903. 498 

pages. See especially Chapter II. 
Colozza, G. a. Psychologie und Padagogik des Kinderspiels. 

O. Bonde, Altenburg, 1900. 272 pages. 
Gross, Karl. The Play of Animals. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 

1898. 341 pages. 
Gross, Karl. The Play of Man. I). Ajipleton & Co., New York, 

1901. 412 pages. 
GuLiCK, L. H. Psychological, Pedagogical, and Religious Aspects of 

Group Games. Pedagogical Seminary (March, 1899), VI, 135- 

151. 
Guts Muths, J. C. F. Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Korpers 

und Geistes, fiir die Jugend. Erziehungsanstalt, Schnepfenthal, 

1796. 492 pages. 
Hall, G. S. Adolescence. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1904. 

2 volumes. See especially II, 202-236. 
Mosso, Angelo. Mechanism of the Emotions. Clark University 

Decennial Celebration Publication (1899), pp. 396-407. 
Mosso, Angelo. Psychic Processes and Muscular Exercise. Clark 

University Decennial Celebration Publication (1899), pp. 383- 

395. 
Stanley, H. M. Professor Gross and Theories of Play. Psycho- 
logical Review (1899), VI, 86-92. 
Strachan, John. What is Play ? Edinburgh, 1877. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 



PLAY IN EDUCATION 

Blow, S. E. Symbolic Education. D. Appleton & Co., New Y^ork, 

1895. 251 pages. 
BuRK, F. L., and C. F. A Study of the Kindergarten Problem in the 

Public Kindergartens of Santa Barbara, California. Whitaker, 

San Francisco, 1899. 123 pages. 
Dopp, K. E. The Place of Industries in Elementary Education. 

Univei'sity Press, Chicago, 1903. 208 pages. 
Eby, Frederick. Reconstruction of the Kindergarten. Pedagogical 

Seminary (July, 1900), VII, 229-286. 
Froebel, F. W. a. Education of Man. D. Appleton & Co., New 

York, 1903. 340 pages. 
Froebel, F. W. A. Mutter imd Kose-Lieder. A. Pichler, Leipzig, 

1883. 228 pages. 
Hodge, C. F. Nature Study and Life. Giun & Company, Boston, 

1902. 514 pages. 
Hughes, J. L. Educational Value of Play and the Recent Play 

Movement in Germany. Educational Review (1894), VIII, 

327-336. 
Hutchinson, Woods. Play as an Education. Contemporary Review 

(1903), LXXXIV, 37.5-394. 
Johnson, G. E. An Educational Experiment. Pedagogical Semi- 
nary (December, 1899), VI, 513-522. 
Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games. Pedagogical Sem- 
inary (October, 1894), III, 97-133. 
Lee, Joseph. Playground Education. Educational Review (1901), 

XXII, 449-471. 
Monroe, W. S. Play Interests of Children. National Educational 

Association (1899), pp. 1084-1090 ; also in American Physical 

Educational Review (1899), IV, 358-365. 



226 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



PLAYS AND GAMES 

Alexander, A. New Games and Sports. George Philip & Son. 

London, 1895. 80 pages. 
Aknold, E. H. Gymnastic Games. Privately published at New 

Haven, 1901. 90 pages. 
Babcock, W. H. Gamesof Washington Children. American Anthro- 
pologist (1888), I, 243-284. 
Badmington LiBRAKY OF SpoRTS AND Pastimes. Longmans, 

Green & Co., London (edited by Somerset and Watson). 
Bancroft, Jessie H. Rules for Games (Spalding's Athletic 

Library). American Sports Publishing Company, 1903. 20 

pages. 
Beard, D. C. The American Boy's Handy Book. Charles Scrib- 

ner's Sons, New York, 1901. 441 juiges. 
Beard, D. C. The Outdoor Handy Book. Charles Scribner's Sons, 

New York, 1900. 490 pages. 
Beard, D. C. The Jack of All Trades. Charles Scribner's Sous, 

New York, 1900. 291 pages. 
Beard, Lina, and A. B. The American Girl's Handy Book. Charles 

Scribner's Sons, New York, 1898. 
Beleze, G. Jeux des adolescents. Hachette & C'^, Paris, 1891. 

352 pages. 
Benson, J. K. The Book of Indoor Games. J. B. Lippincott Com- 
pany, Philadelphia, 1904. 354 pages. 
Benson, J. K. The Book of Sports and Pastimes. C. Arthur Pearson, 

Philadelphia, 1907. 344 pages. 
Bond, A. Russell. The Scientific American Boy. Munn & Co., 

New York, 1906. 317 pages. 
Cassell. Book of Indoor Sports and Amusements. Cassell, New 

York, 1881. 
Cassell. Book of Sports and Pastimes. Cassell, New York, 1881. 
Champlin, J. D., and Bostwick, A. E. Young Folk's Cyclopedia 

of Games and Sports. H. Holt & Co., New York, 1899. 784 

pages. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 

Chesley, a. M. Indoor and Outdoor Gymnastic Games (Spald- 
ing's Athletic Library). American Sports Publishing Com- 
pany, 1902. 128 pages. 

Croswell, T. R. Amusements of Worcester School Children. Ped- 
agogical Seminary (September, 1899), VI, 314-371. 

CuLiN, Stewart. Street Ganies of Boys in Brooklyn, New York. 
Journal of American Folklore (1891), IV, 221-237. 

Dopp, K. E. The Place of Industries in Elementary Education. 
University Press, Chicago, 1903. 208 pages. 

Evans, Henry Ridgely. The Old and New Magic. The Open 
Court Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906. 348 pages. 

GoMME, A. B. The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. Dictionary of British Folklore. D. Nutt, London, 
1894-1898. 2 volumes. 

Grey, Marion. Two Hundi-ed Indoor and Outdoor Games. Frei- 
denker Publishing Co., Milwaukee. 60 pages. 

GuLiCK, L. H. Physical Education by Muscular Exercise. P. 
Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1904. 67 pages. 

Hall, A. Neely. The Boy Craftsman. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 
Co., Boston, 1905. 393 pages. 

Hall, G. S. The Story of a Sand Pile. Scribner's Magazine (June, 
1888), III, 690-696. 

Harper, C. A. One Hundred and Fifty Gymnastic Games. G. II. 
Ellis, Boston. 1902. 159 pages. 

Hoffman, Professor. Puzzles, Old and New. Warne, Frederick & 
Co., New York, 1894. 

Hopkins, Albert A. Magic. Munn & Co., New York, 1906. 556 
pages. 

Jahrbuch FiJK VoLKS-UND JuoENDSPiELE (lierausgegeben von H. 
Wickenhagen), Vol. XV. R. Voigtlander, Leipzig, 1906. 274 
pages. 

Johnson, John. Rudimentary Society among Boys. Johns Hopkins 
University Studies in History and Political Science (1884), II, 56. 

Kingsland, Mrs. Burton. The Book of Indoor and Outdoor 
Games. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1904. 610 pages. 

Kirk, Mrs. Florence. Old English Games and Exercises. Long- 
mans, Green & Co., London and New York, 1906. 51 pages. 



228 EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMP:S 

Kreunz, Franz. Bewegungspiel iind Wettkiinipfe. F. Pechel, 

Graz, 1897. 256 pages. 
Lincoln, Jeanettk C. May -Pole Dances. America Gymnasia Co., 

Boston, 1907. 
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fur die deutche Jugend. Weber, Leipzig, 1891. 172 pages. 
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& Bros., New Y'ork, 1903. 282 pages. 
Nugent, Meredith. New Games and Amusements. Doubleday, 

Page & Co., New Y^ork, 1905. 260 pages. 
Pollard, Jose. Plays and (James for Little Folks. MacLoughliu 

Bros., New Y^ork, 1889. 
PouLssoN, A. E. Finger Plays. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 

Boston, 1893. 80 pages. 
Raydt, H. Die deutchen StiUlte und das Jugendspiel. Manz & 

Lange, Hannover, 1891. 172 pages. 
Schaefer, W. C. Games for Schools and Gymnasia. Freidenker 

Publishing Co., Milwaukee, 1900. 34 pages. 
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& Co., New York, 1906. 66 pages. 
Spalding's Athletic Library Publications. American Sports 

Publishing Company, New Y'ork. 
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New York, 1897. 
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Wheeler, Charles G. Woodworking for Beginners. G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, New Y^ork, 1900. 551 pages. 



INDEX 



Acting Charades, 190 

Acting Titles, 187 

Activities, instinctive, 41 

Adjectives, 203 

Adventurers, 198 

Advei-bs, 203 

American Football, 175 

Anagrams, 152 

Andover Play School, 44, 51 

Anecdotes, 201 

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral, 189 

Apparatus and toys, 83, 87, 95, 

15G, 207 
Archery, 111, 157 
Arithmetic, 140-145, 193-194, 219 
Arithmetical Standards, 193 
Arithmetical Races, 194 
Arnold, E. H., 210 
Art, 220 
As We Go Round the Mulberry 

Bush, 136 
Association, 66 
Assumed Characters, 200 
Athletic Events, 216 

Babylonian, 212 
Balancing, 184 
Baldwin, 36 
Balloon Ball, 107, 172 
Baseball, 169, 176 
Basedow, 31, 40 
Basket Ball, 176 
Baste the Bear, 163 



Battle for the Banner, 176 

Bean Bags, 142 

Bird Catcher, 116 

Black Man, 105 

Blind Man's Buff, 122 

Boiler Burst, The, 102 

Bookbinder, 118 

Bound Hands, 104 

Bowling, 176 

Boxing, 180, 214 

Brain, growth of, 65, 68, 70 

Breast to Mouth, 184 

Bridge Board, 145 

Brinton, 64 

Bull in tlie Ring, 161 

Buried Words, 152 

Burk, Dr. Frederick, 12 

Button, Button, 133 

Camping, 146 
Capping Verses, 190 
Captain Ball, 212 
Card and Table Games, 193 
Cat and Mouse, 100 
Catch Ball, 107 
Cat's Cradle, 118 
Center Base, 161 
Chalk the Arrow, 167 
Chamberlain, 6 
Characters, 200 
Chariot Race, 169 
Chesley, A. M., 210 
Chickens, 140 



229 



230 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Child culture, object of, 7 

Child study, 37 

Chinning the Bar, 180 

Circle Ball, 107 

Clouston, 76 

Clumps, 188 

Coasting, 157 

Cockfight, 181 

Collecting, 78, 90, 145 . ' <»t-1 

Colozza, 20 

Come, It Comes, 133 

Come with Me, 101 

Commeuius, 30 

Competitive games, 75, 208 

Comte, 36 

Construction, 45 

Constructive plays, 00, 08, 158. 

See Manual Training 
Continued Stories, 201 
Conversations, Two-Minute, 201 
Conveyances, 203 
Corn and Beans, 187 
Corner Ball, 171 
Corner Keep Ball, 211 
Correspondence, 203 
Counting, 140 
Crackabout, 171 
Crambo, 127 
Cricket, 17G 
Croquet, 176 
Cushion Dance, 30 

Dancing, 139 
Dare Base, 104 
Darwin, 36, 37 
Day and Night, 163 
Debates, 203 
Dice, 140 
Dictionary, 153 
Dodge Ball, 172 



Dolls, 75, 78 

Dominoes, 140 

Dot and Carry Two, 183 

Dramatic plays, 75, 90, 150, 158 

Dramatics, 203 

Drawing plays, 91, 154, 220 

Drive Ball, 172 / 

Drop the Handkerchief, 101 ^ 

Dual Contests, 180 

Duck on a Rock, 170 

Egg Polo, 116 

Eliot, President, 19, 20, 22 

Encounters, 107 

Erasmus, 30 

Evolution, 3, 4, 37 

Exploring, 145 

Falkener, 26 

Famous Men, 199 

Famous Numbers, 199 

Farmer in the Dell, 137 

Fast Runners, 105 

Fatigue, 71, 76 ; muscular, 43 

Feather Game, IKJ 

F^nelon, 31 

Finger Feat, 182 

Fireman's Race, 169 

Fisherman, 117 

Five Geese in a Flock, 105 

Follow the Leader, 105, 164 

Football, 176 

Fox, 163 

Fox and Farmer, 162 

Fox and Geese, 165, 192 

French Blind Man's Buff, 122 

Froebel, 35, 36, 38 

Games of experimentation, 111 
Gardening, 146, 196 



INDEX 



231 



Geography, 147-149, 196 

Give- A way, 191 

Go Round and Round the Valley, 

136 
Goethe, 36 

Going to Jerusalem, 106 
Golf, 176 
Gomme, 136 
Grace Hoops, 175 
Greeks, 26, 28 
Green Gravel, 137 
Green Wolf, 162 
Groos, 38, 39 
Guess games, 93, 132 
Gulick, 42, 63 
Guts INIuths, 33, 34, 38 
Gypsy, 101 

Ilailman, 36 

Hall, 36, 75 

Ilalleck, 130 

Handball, 176 

Hare and Hound, 1()6 

Hartwell, 72 

Have You Seen My Sheep, 101 

Hawk and Chickens, 102 

Hegel, 36 

Herbart, 37 

Hidden Proverbs, 187 

Hide and Seek, 100 

Hide in Sight, 127 

High or Low, 133 

Hill Dill, 103, 160 

Historical Drama, 200 

Historical Pictures, 200 

Historical Tableaux, 200 

History, 188, 199, 220 

Histoiy Game, 198 

Hockey, 176 

Hoop Race, 107 



Ploppin, 28 
Hopping Bases, l(i4 
Hopping Dance, 116 
Hopping Race, 169 
House Hiring, 102 
How Do You Like It, 186 
How Many Fingers, 132 
Hughlings- Jackson, Dr. 11 
Hull Gull, 133 
Hunkety, 162 
Hunt the Ring, 122 
Hunt the Slipper, 120 
Huntsman, 106 

I Love My Love, 187 
I Spy, 100 
Identification, 130 
Imagination, 68-69, 73, 77 
Imitation, 66, 68, 72, 80 
Imitative Play, 90, 150, 158 
Impromptu Newspaper, 201 
Indoor play rooms, 88 
Insects, 5 

Instinct and education, 4 
Instinct, play and, 13 
Instincts, 5 
Intery Mintery, 120 

James, 14 
Jenny Jones, 138 
Jesuits, 30 
Johnson, F. L., 18 
Judge and Jury, 188 
Jump Rope, 112 
Jumping, 186 
Jumping Race, 169 

Kant, 36 
Keep'Ball, l72 
Kindergarten, 40 



232 



EDUCATION BY TLAYS AND GAMES 



Kline, 74 
Knights, 176 
Knocking Off Hats, 180 
Knuckle Down, 182 

Lame Goose, 103 

Language, 150, 201, 219 

Leap Frog, 184 

Letters from Abroad, 203 

Life, sjiecific intensity of, 72, 70 

Locke, 31 

Logomachy, 152 

London Bridge, 138 

Long Reach, 182 

Looby Loo, 135 

Magical Music, 128 

Mahaffy, 45 

Manual training, 222. See Con- 
structive Play 

Massachusetts Civic League, 57 

Medicine Ball, 210 

Memory, 65-67, 77 

Merchants, 199 

Montaigne, 32 

Moral training, 46 

Morra, 133, 143 

Mosaics, 203 

Mosso, 42, 43 

Motor activity, 70, 73 ; coordina- 
tion of, with senses, 75, 77 

Mount Ball, 210 

Music plays, 92, 154, 204, 220 

Nature plays, 91, 145-147, 195, 196 

Nature study, 44, 221 

Newcomb, 213 

Newell, 135 

Next-Door Neighbor, 219 

Nine-Men's Morris, 192 



Novels, 201 
Number Races, 144 
Number Tops, 141 

Observation, 129 
Obstacle Race, 169 
Odd or Even, 133, 142 

P's and Q\s, 200 

Paddy from Home, 122 

Palm Spring, 182 

Pantomime School, 118 

Parlor Magic, 218 

Peel Away, 103 

Peg Driving, 212 

Pegging the Map, 148 

Perez, 36 

Periods of childhood : I, 65-67 ; II, 

68-70; III, 70-76; IV, 76-79; 

V, 79-82 ; characteristics of, 83, 

86, 94, 155, 205 
Pestalozzi, 35, 36, 38 
Pets, 147 
Ping-Pong, 176 
Plato, 26 

Play and instinct, 13 
Play and work, 17 
Play, explanation of, 8 ; motor, 

42 ; use of, in schools, 39 
Plays, dramatic and imitative, 97 ; 

consti-uctive, 90, 98, 158 ; free, 

active, 90, 96, 156 
Polo, 176 

Pom Pom, Pull Away, 103 
Post Office, 203 
Posting, 107 
Potato Race, 167 
Preyer, 36 
Printing, 150, 201 
Prisoner's Base, 160 



INDEX 



233 



Prohibitions, 208 

Prostrate and Perpendicular, 182 

Pulling Sticks, 181 

Push Pole, 181 

Puss in the Corner, 100 

Puzzles, 132 

Pyramid, 192 

Queen Dido is Dead, 120 
Quick, 31 
Quoits, 174 
Quotations, 188 

Rabelais, 28 

Racing, 7 

Railroad Game, 127 

Reading, 150, 201 

Reasoning, 06, 68, 72, 77, 81 

Recapitulation, 4 

Recurrent games, 139 

Regression, period of, 71 

Relay Race, 167 

Relievo, 162 

Repeating Games, 149 

Rhythm, 67, 70 

Richter, 32, 38 

Riddles, 130, 154, 193 

Riley, J. L., 51 

Ring Ball, 174 

Ringtoss, 111, 176 

Ritter, 31 

Rolling Hoops, 106 

Rolly-Pooly, 170 

Romanes, 42 

Run, Sheep, Run, 104 

Ruth and Jacob, 122 

Sail the Ship, 112 
Sand Pile, 147 
Schaefer, W. C, 210 



Schiller, 38 
Schoolmaster, 127 
Schoolroom games, 176-179 
Scrimmage Ball, 211 
Scripture, 129 
Self-activity, 37 

Senses, development of, 65 ; experi- 
menting with, 67, 68 
Sei-pentine Race, 177 
Sheepfold, 161 
Shinney, 175 
Siege, 212 
Singing games, 134 
Skating, 157 
Sleight of Hand, 219 
Sliced Maps, 14 
Sling Shot, 186 
Sling the Monkey, 163 
Speech, 66-67 
Spelling, 150, 201 
Spelling Game, 150 
Spelling Lotto, 152 
Spelling Match, 151 
Spencer, 32, 36 
Spud, 171 

Stages of growth, 10 
Stealing Sticks, 103 
Still Pond, 123 
Stooping Stretch, 183 
Store, 143 
Stories, 93, 150, 201 
String Figures, 119 
Suggestion, 72, 78, 80 
Sully, 36 
Swimming, 157, 216 

Tag, 102 ; Cross, 164 ; Hang, 165 ; 

Hunting, 165 ; Whip, 164 
Take a Chair from Under, 184 
Teakettle, 217 



234 



EDUCATION BY PLAYS AND GAMES 



Tennis, 176 

Tenpins, 111, 141 

Test Mettle, 214 

Tether-Ball, 176 

Thompson, Maurice, 44 

Three Deep, 166 

Throwing Light, 186 

Tip Cat, 173 

Tit-tat-to, 190 

To Tell a Number Thought Of, 218 

To Tell an Object Thought Of, 218 

Tommy Tiddler's Ground, 111 

Town Ball, 160 

Toy Money, 143 

Toys. See Apparatus 

Trades, 127 

Transitional games, 208 

Traveler, 108 

Trial of the Thumb, 182 

Triumph, The, 183 



Tumble-Down Dick, 183 
Tumbling, 184 
Turnover, The, 183 
Turnpikes, 107 
Twenty Questions, 180 
Twisting Sticks, 181 
Twos and Threes, 166 

Volley Ball, 213 

Walking on a Tight Rope, 185 

Wheelbarrow Race, 160 

When I was a Shoemaker, 136 

When I was a Young Girl, 135 

Whip Tag, 164 

Who was He, 200 

Wicket, 175 

Witch in the Jar, 100 

Wolf, 162 

Wrestling, 179, 180, 214 



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By G. STANLEY HALL, President of Clark University and Professor of 
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THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 

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COURSES OF STUDIES 
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THIS is a brief plan of studies for elementary schools, 
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I. Courses of Study 

II. Methods of Teaching 

Writing Observation Lessons 

Spelling Information Lessons 

Language Drawing 

Grammar Singing 

Arithmetic Memory Lessons 

Geography Busy Work 

History Physical Exercises 
Physiology and Hygiene 

III. Organization, Moral Training, and Government 



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